
QassiJ_6a_2-JL_ 

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PRESENTED BY 



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HISTORY 



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OF BASE HOSPITAL No. 18 

AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES 
(jOHNS HOPKINS UNIt) 




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PUBLISHED BY 



BASE HOSPITAL 18 ASSOCIATION 
BALTIMORE 






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Copyright, 1919, by- 
Base Hospital 18 Association 

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THOMSEN- ELLIS CO. 

BALTIMORE :: NEW YORK 



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INDEX 



> An Introduction to the History. 

"Fatted Calf." 

. Preparation and the Start. 

f) 

*"' General History. 

Special Articles : 

1. Chateau Bazoilles. 

2. Surgical and Orthopedic Services. 

3. The Roentgen Laboratory. 

4. Infectious Diseases. 

5. Nose, Throat and Ear Department. 

6. Eye Department. 

7. Dental Department. 
S. Receiving Ofhce. 

9. History of the Nurses. 

10. Medical Students' Course. 

1 1 . Welfare Work — 

Y.M.C.A. 
Catholic Activities. 
American Red Cross. 

12. Sports. 

13. History of Enlisted Men of Base Hospital No. 18. 

14. History of Unit "A." 

15. Trip of Team No. 11. 

16. Trip of Team No. ii-A. 

17. Trip of Shock Team. 

18. Trip Heart Studies. 

19. Trip to Evacuation Hospital No. i. 

20. Trip on Face and Jaw Surgery. 

21. Vasseny Trip. 

22. The Organization of the Surgical Service in the A.E.F. 

23. The Medical Care of Aviators. 

24. Professional Records of Hospital. 



INDEX— Continued 

Obituaries — 
Nurses^ 

Miss Jeannette Bellman. 
Miss Miriam Knowles. 

Enlisted Men: 

Edwin S. Linton (Student). 
Lyle Rich (Student). 
Horace E. Teter. 

Personal Data of Attached Officers. 

Alphabetical List of Personnel: 
Officers. 
Nurses. 
Enlisted Men. 



INTRODUCTION 

THE HISTORY OF BASE HOSPITAL No. i8 (JOHNS HOPKINS UNIT) 

IN THE GREAT WAR 

THIS volume is compiled as a record of the activities of Base 
Hospital No. i8 to preserve in permanent form, for the 
personnel of the Hospital and their friends, the memories 
of its activities and achievements during the war against the Central 
Powers of Europe. The contents which go to make up this httle 
book were contributed by many different individuals and much 
reduplication and overlapping of the different accounts will be 
observed. The committee charged with the preparation of this 
book have altered to some extent and combined in various ways the 
articles submitted by the different contributors, eliminating where 
possible the purely personal elements of their narratives, and at- 
tempting to bring into general conformity the style of description 
employed. In spite of this, much irregularity will no doubt be 
noticed, and possibly some important facts are entirely omitted. 
It will be borne in mind by the reader, however, that this pamphlet 
does not pretend to be a work of literature, but simply an historical 
record of the outstanding events connected with Base Hospital 
No. i8. The story of the Unit as a whole will be told first, and after- 
ward special articles dealing with the various activities in which the 
members of this unit engaged are presented by the men who took part 
in these special activities. 

PREPARATION AND THE START 

Along toward the middle of May, in the the year 191 7, as a 
result of the visit to the U.S.A. of the French Mission headed by 
General Joffre, the urgent necessity for the immediate dispatch of 
an American Expeditionary Force to the assistance of the Allies 
became at once apparent. Unfortunately, at that time the United 
States, owing to the lack of preparation due to the neutral position 
occupied by them since the beginning of the war, were in no position 
to do more than send a comparatively small force for its moral 
rather than its military effect. In order to respond to this call, 
great activity was immediately begun in all branches of the War 



Department and the Navy as well. Those were busy days in Wash- 
ington, with many representative men in all walks of life, from all 
sections of the country, summoned thither for their advice and 
counsel. 

The Medical Department found itself in the same general position 
as the other branches of the military service. It had been generally 
understood that this first expeditionary force was to be composed 
entirely of Regulars. But for one reason or another, almost at the 
last moment, it was decided to call upon the Medical Reserves to the 
extent of the personnel of one Base Hospital to look after the sick 
and wounded of the First Division of the overseas troops. So it 
was that the hearts of the doctors and nurses from Johns Hopkins 
Hospital, comprising the staff of Base Hospital No. i8, were made 
glad, when in the last days of May word came from Washington to 
recruit the requisite number of enlisted men to complete the roster, 
to provide the necessary material and equipment, and to be pre- 
pared for orders to proceed to New York to embark for France 
at an early date. Those who were fortunate enough to compose 
that group will not soon forget the feverish activity, nor the sup- 
pressed excitement and expectancy of those first few days of June, 
preceding that fateful 9th of June, 19 17, when, after having said 
our tearful good-byes in sections, first the enlisted men, then the 
nurses, and finally the doctors, we assembled as a unit for the first 
time on the dock in Hoboken, and embarked on the good ship Fin- 
land. To the good people of Baltimore, whose generosity made 
possible the equipment of the Unit, we wish to return our sincere 
thanks. The indefatigable labors of Dr., now Colonel, Winford H. 
Smith and his efficient secretary. Miss Brinkley, in conjunction 
with certain members of the Unit, rendered possible our departure 
in good shape on the very short notice that was given for the final 
preparations. We were joined in Baltimore by our Quartermaster, 
and in New York by our Commanding Ofificer, a regular. The regular 
adjutant assigned to us never materialized. 

After what seemed to our eager minds an interminable delay, 
we finally, on June 14th, weighed anchor, and with flags flying and 
bands playing, the First Division of American troops, consisting of the 
i6th, 28th, 26th and 18th Regiments of Infantry, sailed bravely forth 
from the mouth of the Hudson, bound for an unknown port. 

J. M. T. Finney. 



"HEIGHO TO THE FATTED CALF" 

(To the tune of ''When the Caissons Go Rolling Along.'') 



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In Bazwill, on a hill, near a little winding rill, 

In the barracks defacing the ground. 

We were trapped, but we scrapped, in the mud and rain and chill. 

While the wild boars were roaming around. 

But now, Heigho, we'll fight the fatted calf, and never go roving again 

Except in thought, to know the time we fought, 

While the wild boars were roaming around. 

We began, with the clan, posing for the movie man. 

In a tavern, one bright summer's day. 

Khaki clothes, quelque chose, we were soldiers of the van, 

While the movie kept clicking away. 

On then, Heigho, we found it all a lark, and thought of the folks at the show, 

When old Eighteen would flicker on the screen, 

While the movie kept clicking away. 



Then on board, we were stored, in an ocean-going Ford, 

And we filled it with laughter and song. 

Music played, cannon brayed, and the engine fires roared, 

While the Finland was rocking along. 

Heigho, we sang, "Give us the Army life, there's nothing as fine in the world," 

But don't forget, we didn't know it yet. 

While the Finland was rocking along. 

Anyway, one fine day, saw us capture Savenay, 

And just aching to get in the fray. 

So we stayed, though we prayed, all we did was get our pay. 

And the whole gang was pining away. 

Oh, then, good Lord, we found it hard to bear, and cared not a hang if we died, 

And so we stayed, although we prayed and prayed. 

And the whole gang was pining away. 

Finally, glory be, found us bound for Bazwilly, 

With old Eighteen some two hundred strong. 

Packed in tight, slept all night, on a neighbor's head or knee. 

While the dinky was dribbling along. 

On then, Heigho, we left a dusty trail, and roughed it as rough as could be, 

We ate canned slum, and thought the war had come, 

While the dinky was dribbling along. 

In Bazwill, on a hill, near a little winding rill, 

In the barracks defacing the ground, 

We were trapped, but we scrapped, in the mud and rain and chill. 

While the wild boars were roaming around. 

But now, Heigho, we'll fight the fatted calf, and never go roving again. 

The Army's fine, but nevermore 'for mine. 

While the wild boars are roaming around. 



GENERAL HISTORY 



EARLY in the winter of 1917, different medical centers throughout the 
United States made tentative preparations for supplying medical units, 
which could be utilized as base hospitals. These units were at first to be 
under the direction of the Red Cross, with the understanding that, as the 
need arose, their control could be assumed by the Army Medical Corps. Their 
personnel was to be furnished from the physicians and instructors in medicine, the 
nurses, and, in some part, by the orderlies and the civilian employees of the 
particular hospitals and medical schools, plus local enlistments. A hospital 
fund for the equipment and early maintenance of the units, together with a 
reserve for the future needs, was to be supplied through the local Red Cross 
Chapter. 

The organization was along the lines laid down by the manual of the Medical 
Department. This was in large part spculative inasmuch as there were only 
a few comparable units extant — such as the Walter Reed Hospital — and, in- 
deed, this comparison is rather overdrawn when it is remembered that these 
new units were to be for war service, to be transportable, and with a personnel 
entirely unfamiliar with the Army administrative routine, that carried the 
regular units along the daily paths of peace. As the Army Medical Bible re- 
cords: "A general hospital of standard size has a capacity of 500 beds, ex- 
clusive of isolation wards. Complete plans and specifications for the erection 
of temporary hospitals of this capacity, for use in time of war or other emergen- 
cies, are on file in the Surgeon-General's offic,e. These plans and specifications 
are also suitable for use in the additional buildihgs for the temporary expansion 
of hospitals already organized. 

"The following tabular statements furnish a working plan of administration 
and give an approximate idea of the personnel required." 

This was practically all the information obtainable, and the "complete 
plans and specifications for the erection of temporary hospitals" were never 
forthcoming. The "tabular statements" were applicable in only a small part, 
and, except for instruction as to the total numbers (afterwards to be altered), 



GENERAL HISTORY 



of doctors, nurses, and enlisted personnel, the organization of the Red Cross 
hospital units was dependent at first in great part upon the ideas of those 
interested. 

At the Johns Hopkins Hospital, the superintendent, Dr. Winford Smith, 
took immediate interest in the organization of such a unit. He spoke with the 
heads of the different departments, who immediately held meetings for the 
arrangement whereby alternate members of the different staffs would be kept 
to continue the essential work at home, and the others would be grouped as 
candidates for the Red Cross and other Army units. As one reads of the present 
staff of Johns Hopkins, it is remarkable the number who could be spared! 
However, the approximate officer personnel was picked in such a way that the 
different specialties would all be represented, and those who were not already 
members entered the Medical Reserve Corps. In the same way volunteers 
were found and examined from among the nurses of the institution and a rough 
summary of available cooks, orderlies and stenographers was made. 

After war was declared, the personnel became more specific, and under 
the active direction of Dr. Smith and Dr. George Walker, the Baltimore Red 
Cross Chapter became interested in the procuring of equipment and the neces- 
sary funds. This represented an extreme amount of work, for at that time 
the war spirit was not very high. Consequently the supplies which afterwards 
were so essential, stand for individual efforts. 

In the meantime. Dr. Smith in his associations with the Surgeon-General's 
office had proved himself essential to that department, and Dr. Finney was 
appointed director of the Unit. In May it was decided to send a base hospital 
to France with the first American Expedition, and an effort was made to organize 
a unit from the regular army. This was soon found to be impracticable, and the 
Johns Hopkins Unit, which until then was represented only by a number — 18 — 
was substituted. 

At once the officer personnel was actually named under Dr. Finney, and the 
nurses under the direction of Miss Bessie Baker, the chief nurse, were examined 
and enlisted. On May 24t'h, Dr. E. W. Bridgman was recalled from his work 
at an officers' training camp, to make enlistments for Base Hospital No. i8. He 
was actively- assisted in his work by Dr. V. R. Mason and Dr. V. P. Syden- 
stricker and by volunteer members of the staff. Advertisements were inserted in 
the daily papers, employees of the hospital were approached, and in less than 
five days no men had been picked. Considerable delay was necessitated by the 
indecision of the faculty as to the procedure in the case of the applications of the 
third-year students. The assurance of the Dean that these men would receive 
their degrees on the completion of the next scholastic year was regarded as suffi- 
cient and 32 were enlisted. A great deal of thanks and credit is due these students 

10 



GENERAL HISTORY 



for their interest and assistance in the early organization ; always uncomplaining 
and dependable, they set a fine example to the enlisted men. 

In the next few days the additional enlistments were made, and especial 
effort was directed towards getting stenographers, plumbers, carpenters, etc., 
and Dr. Wharton was sent to New York for cooks. On the 29th of May the 
following telegram was sent to the Surgeon-General's office: "In compliance with 
telegraphic orders. Governor's Island, May 24th, I have enlisted 148 men for 
Hopkins' Hospital Base Unit. Four cooks come from New York tomorrow. A 
regular hospital corps sergeant has been requested. Enlistment papers and 
physical examinations complete. Descriptive lists and identification records 
started. Designation cards finished tomorrow. Vaccinations, smallpox, typhoid 
and paratyphoid proceeding rapidly. Suggest adjutant and quartermaster as- 
signed at once with orders for outfitting at Allentown. Request Drs. Bridgman, 
Mason, Shaw and Wharton, members of Unit, be detailed to accompany Unit for 
vaccination and instruction. (Signed) Bridgman." 

Meanwhile the equipment was being bought and collected for shipment to 
New York, under the drive of Dr. Walker's energy. It was he, almost alone, who 
is to be thanked for the safeguarding of the equipment and its safe arrival in 
St. Nazaire, from where Dr. Baetjer got it to Bazoilles. The vaccination of the 
nurses and doctors was started at this time, to be completed, with a few of the 
enlisted men, on the boat going over. 

On the 4th of June the nurses were sent to New York for their uniforms and 
preparations were made to send the enlisted personnel to Allentown. On the 
5th the quartermaster. Captain John M. Tipton, arrived, and on the 6th the 
enlisted personnel, which had been reporting daily after the ist of June, were 
instructed to meet at Camden Station for their trip to New York. That night 
clothing requisitions were compiled and given to the quartermaster who filled 
them the next day at Governor's Island, and sent the obtainable equipment to 
the wharf. The newly arrived Unit appeared at Jersey City to find its birth 
had not yet been recorded in New York, and under the guard of the students the 
men were kept at the station until arrangements could be made by the quarter- 
master for their temporary housing at the Mills Hotel. The following day 
Major Heysinger arrived to take charge of the Unit and the officers arrived 
from Baltimore. The 9th of June orders arrived to board the Finland, and the 
next morning the boat dropped down the bay, awaiting, inside the submarine 
chain, our final departure on the 14th. The transport remained in New York 
Harbor until 12.45 p. m. on June 14, 1917, when the anchor was lifted and the 
Finland started on her voyage to Europe. 

The first division of American troops was divided into three convoys, the 
Finland being a part of the third. In this convoy there were three other troop 

II 



GENERAL HISTORY 



ships, the collier Cyclops of the U.S.N. , the crusier Charleston, and a vary- 
ing number of torpedo destroyers, at times as many as eight, and at other times 
as few as three. The voyage across the Atlantic was in the main uneventful. 
This was the period of maximum submarine activity on the part of Germany, 
and as a measure of precaution, the convoy took a most indirect and circuitous 
course. It was a constant matter of speculation among the personnel on board 
as to where we were at any given time. There were moments when doubt was 
entertained as to whether anyone, even the captain, knew exactly our position. 
The weather was delightful throughout the whole trip, and the principal matter 
of interest was the watching for possible submarines. The transport mounted 
four 4-inch guns with their gun-crews, and with the other vessels of the con- 
voy engaged in daily target practice at targets towed in the water by other 
vessels. There were the strictest regulations against lights of any kind appearing 
after dark on the vessel, even smoking on deck being strictly forbidden. Upon 
one occasion, a submarine alarm was given and for a few moments great excite- 
ment prevailed when the Charleston fired several shots at the supposed 
enemy. The actual existence of this submarine was never verified. Among the 
activities which broke the routine of life on shipboard were occasional "abandon 
ship" drills, in which the entire personnel on board participated. At a given 
signal of one long and four short blasts of the whistle, everyone was compelled 
to report to his lifeboat or raft and stand inspection as to his readiness to disem- 
bark. 

On the 20th of June, which chanced to be Doctor Finney's birthday, 
he was given a party by the nurses and doctors, at which a number of speeches 
were made and the birthday cake with fifty-four candles was the center of the 
refreshments. 

On the 27th of June our convoy was joined by two French torpedo 
boats, which, added to those already with us, brought the total number of 
destroyers up to eight, and formed a complete ring of naval vessels about the 
transports. 

On June 28, 1917, at 11 p.m., the convoy came to anchor in St. Nazaire, 
France, and was welcomed by large crowds of French who thronged the docks 
and quays, singing and cheering, and among whom were sprinkled a number of 
American soldiers and sailors who had arrived on the two other sections of the 
convoy which reached St. Nazaire earlier than ours did. On June 30th, the 
baggage and equipment of the Hospital was unloaded and transported to Save- 
nay, France, a small village about thirty miles from St. Nazaire. The personnel 
was taken there in the afternoon and quartered in a new building which had 
been erected as a normal school, but was taken over by the American Army to 
serve as a hospital. For a few days the time was spent in organizing the Unit, 

12 



GENERAL HISTORY 



in giving officers, nurses and men a certain amount of military training, and in 
waiting for definite orders as to our future movements. On the Fourth of July 
a celebration was held in which the French people joined. There were games 
and field sports during the daytime, a reception to the mayor and citizens of the 
town during the afternoon, at which speeches of welcome were exchanged, 
and in the evening a dinner in the town hall to which the mayor was again 
invited, and more exchanges of compliments took place. 

On July 5th the thirty-five casual nurses who had been attached to us for 
the voyage across the ocean, together with thirty of our enlisted men and Doc- 
tors Boggs, Stone, Bernheim, Mason and Sydenstricker, were detached from the 
rest of the Unit and sent back to St. Nazaire to take over the first American 
hospital organized with the American Expeditionary Forces. This hospital was 
located in what had formerly been a high school in the town of St. Nazaire. It 
had been used by the French during the first three years of the war as a military 
hospital, and had been transferred to the American Army a few days before the 
party from Base Hospital No. 18 took charge of it. It contained about two 
hundred and ninety American soldiers and civilian employees, many of whom 
were in urgent need of prompt medical and surgical attention. The larger number 
of cases were acute infectious diseases which had affected many troops of the 
First Division during the trip across the ocean. There were also a number of 
acute surgical cases, and the operating room was at once organized and started 
to work. During the first few days following July 5th, Dr. Boggs acted as 
Commanding Officer of this organization which was known first as U.S. Army 
Hospital A.E.F. No. i, but which subsequently was designated as Base Hospital 
No. loi, and as such continued to function throughout the war. Within a few 
days Major Crum, of the Regular Medical Corps, was assigned as Commanding 
Officer of this hospital; Dr. Boggs became Adjutant and Chief of the Medical 
Service, Dr. Stone being the Chief of the Surgical Service. The enlisted personnel 
was increased by the addition of fifteen more men from Base Hospital No. 18, 
and the assignment of a number of causal Medical Department men belonging 
to the Regular Army. The officer personnel was also increased by the assign- 
ment from Base Hospital No. 18 of Drs. King, Happ, Shaw, Wharton and 
Lankford. During this period there was a more or less constant amount of medical 
and surgical work, which, at times, was quite heavy, but towards the middle 
of August, the First Division moved into the forward areas around Gondrecourt, 
France, and in consequence the number of patients admitted to the hospital 
greatly decreased. All this time there was a great deal of anxiety felt lest the 
group who had been temporarily detached from the unit to serve at St. Nazaire 
should become permanently separated from Base Hospital No. 18. This was 
a source of great concern, not only for personal reasons, caused by the possibility 

13 



GENERAL HISTORY 



of breaking up the associations of the Unit and its fine esprit de corps, but also 
particularly because of the danger involved to the interests of the medical stu- 
dents who were with us. Among the enlisted men of the unit there were thirty-two 
students from the Johns Hopkins Medical School who had completed their 
third year in medicine. These men had been enlisted as privates in the Medical 
Reserve Corps with the understanding that they should be given practical 
training in a hospital in France, as well as organized teaching by the members 
of the Staff, and upon the completion of their course, would be granted a degree 
in medicine by the University and a commission in the Army as medical officers. 
The possibility that some of these men who were in the St. Nazaire detachment 
would be unable to complete the projected course of study, and hence that the 
plan under which they had been enlisted would become impossible to carry out, 
was a source of a great deal of worry. Efforts were brought to bear to have the 
portion of the Unit who were serving at St. Nazaire relieved from that assign- 
ment and reattached to the main body of the organization. These efforts were 
finally successful, and in the latter part of August, 1917, orders came for Base 
Hospital No. 18 men to return to their own unit. Several days of delay were 
caused by waiting for sufficient personnel from other sources to arrive and take 
over the care of the St. Nazaire Hospital, but by the ist of September all of the 
Base 18 group, with the exception of Drs. Boggs, Mason and Sydenstricker, had 
returned to join Base Hospital No. 18. These three officers were also relieved 
and ordered to Base Hospital No. 18 about two week later. It will be seen that 
this group of men had the distinction of opening, organizing and running for a 
period of about two months the first American hospital which served the troops 
of the A.E.F. in France. 

In the meanwhile the main body of the Unit had remained at Savenay wait- 
ing until the American Government could take over hospital facilities in the area 
which American troops were to occupy near the front lines. During this period 
a number of members of the staff were allowed to visit for short intervals certain 
of the French hospitals and see the work of certain French professional men 
of distinction. The time was spent in a certain amount of military training, 
which was not perhaps directed in the best way to secure the results desired. 
There was a general feeling that the Commanding Officer failed to grasp the pur- 
pose for which a base hospital was intended and to understand the type of people 
who were working under his command, consequently there gradually arose ? 
great deal of strain in the relations between the Unit and its Commanding Officer, 
which increased steadily until the situation became intolerable. In the mean- 
while a French barrack-type hospital located at Bazoilles-sur-Meuse, in the 
Department of Vosges, France, had been taken over from the French Govern- 
ment, and to this location Base Hospital No. 18 was ordered. They arrived 

14 



GENERAL HISTORY 



there on July 26, 191 7, after a long and tedious journey across France in a troop 
train. The monotony of this trip was relieved by a number of instances whose 
amusing character made them stand out in the unwritten traditions of the 
Hospital, and provided a fund of anecdotes that have often delighted their 
hearers. Before the Hospital as a whole moved to Bazoilles, Dr. Walker and 
Dr. Eaton, with twenty of the enlisted men, had preceded the main body, taken 
over the buildings and grounds and put them in order. With the coming of the 
rest of the Unit to what was to be its permanent home in France, the work of 
the organization was rapidly attacked — the wards, laboratory, operating room, 
X-ray plant and other departments of medical work were put into shape, and the 
men of the detachment took over and got into running order the electric plant, 
the heating system, the water plant, the waste disposal arrangements, and soon 
had organized a well-equipped and functioning hospital. On August 17, 1917, 
Major Heisinger was relieved from command of the Hospital and Major George 
M. Edwards succeeded him. This event marks a definite turning point in the 
history of this Unit. Major Edwards proved himself an intelligent, sympathetic 
and tactful Commanding Officer, who quickly won the loyal support and affection 
of the entire organization. Under his leadership the friction which had previously 
interfered with efficiency disappeared, and the" Hospital was very soon in that 
desirable condition of enthusiastic and loyal effort which has characterized it 
throughout its history. 

At this point a brief description of the location and surroundings of the 
hospital may be of interest. The village of Bazoilles is a place of about 200 in- 
habitants, situated on the upper headwaters of the River Meuse in the Depart- 
ment of the Vosges, France. It had on its outskirts a private estate, described 
more completely in another section of this history, consisting of a stone hunting 
lodge, several groups of stone outbuildings and a very attractive tract of for- 
ested hillside in back of it of perhaps twenty-five acres area. The estate had been 
taken over by the French Government early in the war, and in addition to the per- 
manent buildings already in existence, a barrack-type wooden hospital had been 
constructed on the grounds, of an estimated capacity of i ,000 beds. The wooden 
ward buildings were arranged on both sides of an avenue running up the hill- 
side, which was roofed over, but not inclosed on the sides. In addition, there 
were detached barrack buildings for the use of the hospital personnel as quarters, 
kitchens, mess hall, etc. There was already an electric lighting and water supply 
system that was taken over by the American Government, and roadways and 
paths had been constructed throughout the grounds. The hillside on which the 
hospital was situated forms one of the slopes of a beautiful valley in the foothills 
of the Vosges Mountains. The surrounding country is rolling and is intersected 
by numerous small streams, forming a very beautiful landscape. The town is 

15 



NERAL HISTORY 



situated on a small branch railroad running from Langres to Toul, which consti- 
tuted the only line of communication for the supply and evacuation of the 
hospital. The climate a large part of the year is damp, and particularly to those 
accustomed to the warmer parts of the United States, proved very trying. At 
the time when Base Hospital No. i8 was installed in this locality there were no 
other American base hospitals farther forward, and until nearly the end of the 
war, this hospital was the most advanced base hospital serving the American 
Forces in the Toul and Nancy Sectors. 

During the months of September and October, 1917, Base Hospital No. 18 
acted as a camp hospital for the several divisions of the American Army which 
were in training areas near by. This was before any American troops had gone 
into the trenches for actual battle experience. During this period, the character 
of the medical work was largely that of a civil hospital. There were the usual 
diseases as well as many cases of acute infections, such as measles, mumps and 
scarlet fever. The surgical service was engaged at this time largely in the treat- 
ment of the usual surgical conditions which developed in young adults — acute 
appendicitis, hernias, etc., with a good number of accidental injuries, including 
gunshot wounds from the handling of weapons. During this time most of the 
professional staff of the Hospital were give'n the opportunity to make short trips 
for observation to the French or British Medical Services, who were actively en- 
gaged in caring for troops in combat. These short trips of inspection proved of 
great practical value in giving first-hand acquaintance with the professional prob- 
lems of modern warfare. 

In the month of September, 1917, the permanent administrative organization 
of the Hospital was completed; Dr. Stone was made Adjutant; Dr. King, Regis- 
trar; Dr. Guthrie, Admitting Officer; Dr. Bernheim Commander of the Detach- 
ment; Dr. Fisher, Chief of the Surgical Service; Dr. Boggs, Chief of the Medical 
Service, and Dr. Baetjer, Chief of Laboratory. These appointments continued 
until the persons filling them were relieved from duty with the Unit perma- 
nently, or assigned to other duties. Dr. Walker, who had been the Adjutant of the 
Unit, was detached on November 3, 191 7, from which time until the end of the 
war he had no further duties at Base Hospital No. 18. 

Dr. Finney, the Director of the Unit, and Dr. Fisher, Chief of the Surgical 
Service, were detached from the Unit on February 8, 191 8. No other Director of 
the Unit was appointed to succeed Dr. Finney. Dr. Stone succeeded Dr. Fisher 
as Chief of the Surgical Service. Dr. Boggs was detached from the Unit on March 
19, 191 8, and was succeeded as Chief of the Medical Service by Dr. Guthrie. 
Dr. Baer was detached from the Unit on February 8, 1918, and his position as 
Orthopedist of the Hospital was filled first by Dr. Graves, of Portland, Ore., and 
later on, April 29, 1918, by Dr. George Dunn, of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. 

16 



GENERAL HISTORY 



These men who were reHeved from duty with the Unit were all assigned to 
important positions in the administrative organization of the various professional 
services of the A.E.F. Dr. Finney, who later was promoted to the rank of 
Brigadier-General, was placed in charge of the Surgical Service of the A.E.F. 
and with him was associated Dr. Fisher, later promoted to the rank of 
Lieutenant-Colonel. Dr. Boggs became one of the chief advisors of Dr. Thayer, 
who was in charge of the Medical Service of the A.E.F., and was given the rank 
of Colonel. Dr. Baer served in a similar capacity in the organization of the 
orthopedic work, associated with Dr. Joel L. Goldthwait, Chief of that Service, 
and was made Lieutenant-Colonel. Dr. Walker was given charge of venereal 
prophylaxis and hygiene at the base ports in France used for the debarkation of 
American troops, and was made Lieutenant-Colonel. Dr. Waters, who was in 
charge of the X-ray Department of Base Hospital No. i8, was also relieved 
from duty with the Unit and assigned as associate to the Chief of the Radio- 
graphic Service with the A.E.F. on April 5, 1918. He was succeeded by Dr. John 
Singer, of Greensburg, Pa., who continued in charge of this department with 
Base Hospital No. 18 until the end of the war. 

With the entrance of the American troops into the trenches Base Hospital 
No. 18 began at once to receive battle casualties and from this time on had a 
large share in the treatment of the wounded in the A.E.F. During the winter of 
1917-1918, the American troops who were in the line were serving chiefly as a 
part of their training and were not called upon for any major offensives, conse- 
quently the number of battle casualties was relatively small, and the surgical 
work of the Hospital was composed in considerable part of civil or traumatic 
surgery rather than battle wounds. There was, however, a heavy incidence of 
medical cases, particularly those involving the respiratory tract, and the wards 
were full of soldiers with bronchitis and pneumonia. Among the pneumonia 
cases a good many developed empyema as a complication. These patients, how- 
ever, as a rule, did much better than similar cases which were encountered in 
America in the training camps at this same time. The nature of the infection 
in France was evidently much less virulent than was the case at home where 
the mortality was astonishingly high. 

The autumn and winter, until after January 15th, were characterized by the 
most prolonged spell of damp, cold and rainy weather that any of us had ever 
experienced. From the middle of September until January 15th, there was 
scarcely a day on which some rain did not fall and in the large majority of days 
there was a steady downpour. The hospital grounds, the surrounding roads and 
the whole countryside became a vast bog, and the effect upon everyone's morale 
was most depressing. There were also periods of severe cold which, combined 
with inadequate heating, made it very difficult to properly provide for the wel- 

17 



GENERAL HISTORY 



fare of the patients and the personnel of the Unit itself. At times the medicines 
and the dressing solutions on the wards would freeze solid; night after night it 
was difficult to keep the dressings from freezing on the patients themselves. The 
beginning of the year 1918 saw a change in the weather from raw and wet to dry 
and cold. This welcome change was reflected in the better health and spirits of 
the Unit and with the freezing of the ground and the falling of snow, a certain 
amount of relaxation in winter sports became possible. Sledding parties were 
organized and outdoor exercise was no longer rendered a nightmare by the 
omnipresent mud. With the coming of spring there came also the long-expected 
great German offensive. The tremendous drive towards Amiens was followed 
with the greatest interest and concern by the whole civilized world, in which 
feeling, of coursfe, this Unit shared. Since, however, the impact of this drive fell 
upon the British and French armies almost entirely, and since its geographical 
location was remote from the area of the front with which Base Hospital No. 18 
was in close rail connection, it made no direct difference in the medical work of the 
Hospital. The same is also true of the subsequent German attacks in Flanders 
and about Noyon, and although this was a period of anxiety in which everyone's 
nerves were held taut by the great events which were taking place, it was not 
until the Chateau-Thierry fighting that followed the successful thrust of the 
Germans toward the Marne that our part in the intense military activity de- 
veloped. 

In the meantime certain further changes in the personnel of the hospital 
staff were taking place, and Dr. George J. Heuer, on March 2, 1918, had been 
detached for duty as a special operator at Evacuation Hospital No. i situated 
in the Sebastopol Barracks which is outside of Toul. Capt. E. W. Bridgman was 
detailed for a special course of study in England on March 20, 191 8, and after 
that time engaged in directing the medical work at Convalescent Hospital No. 2. 
Dr. Shaw also was assigned to duty with combat troops on June 2, 1918, and was 
attached to the 51st Artillery, C.A.C.Ry. In April, word was received from the 
medical faculty of the Johns Hopkins University that degrees in medicine had 
been granted to the thirty students who were serving as enlisted men in Base 
Hospital No. 18. Arrangements were then made by which these men were sent 
for a short course in military medicine to the Army School at Langres, France, 
upon the completion of which they were commissioned as first lieutenants in the 
Medical Corps, U.S.A. These various changes reduced the original personnel of 
the Unit very materially, but its effective strength was brought up by the addition 
of Hospital Unit A. This was a medical organization from Philadelphia under the 
command of Major Jopson of a type designed to augment the personnel of es- 
tablished base hospitals. The enlisted men, numbering forty-five, were a very 
great help in the running of the hospital and proved to contain a number of very 



GENERAL HISTORY 



capable and intelligent members. The officers of this organization were very 
shortly detached from Base Hospital No. i8 and assigned to various other 
organizations, but the enlisted personnel remained with us until the end of the 
war. Besides this organization, at various times casual medical officers and men 
were assigned to Base Hospital No. i8. At a certain period in the development 
of the A.E.F. as a great organized army, it became necessary to find temporary 
quarters for casual personnel, and for this purpose many base hospitals were 
utilized as temporary stopping places for such casuals. Most of these men, both 
commissioned and enlisted, stayed only a short time and never took any active part 
in the work of the Hospital. There were, however, several officers originally 
assigned as casuals who remained on permanent duty at Base Hospital No. i8 
and became an integral and important part of its personnel. Reference has al- 
ready been made to Dr. John Singer, who during the most active working period 
of the Hospital was in charge of the X-ray Department. Dr. Louis Cassamajor, 
attached to the Unit on May 5, 1918, as neurologist and psychiatrist and after- 
ward made consultant in these subjects for the group center, was also a perma- 
nent addition to our personnel. Dr. Louis King, assigned to duty on June 24, 
1918, became a member of the medical service. Dr. John Young, from November 
12, 1917, to April 16, 1918, was assigned to the X-ray Department. Dr. Frank A. 
Evans, Dr. Ernest duBray, Dr. John C. Lyman, Dr. Charles H. Watt, and Dr. 
George Dunn, all of whom were graduates of the Johns Hopkins Medical School, 
and who had come over early in the war for medical work with the British 
armies, were assigned to the Unit to take the place of the older men who had been 
detached for service as general consultants. Besides the changes in the profes- 
sional personnel above noted there were several shifts in the administration. 
On July 15th, Lieutenant-Colonel Edwards was relieved as Commanding Officer 
by Major H. H. Van Kirk. On September 2'] , 1918, Major H. H. Van Kirk was 
relieved as Commanding Officer and Dr. Bertram M. Bernheim, who was the 
ranking officer then present with the Unit, automatically became Commanding 
Officer. This post he retained until November 20, 1918, when Major Van Kirk 
returned again as Commanding Officer, relieving Dr. Bernheim. 

Similar changes had been taking place in the nursing staff; the climate, the 
working conditions, the mode of living, had proved too severe for a number of 
nurses, and Misses French, Michael, Atwood, Packard, Oliver, and Eleanor Jones 
had been sent back to America as physically unsuited to the further continuance 
of work in France. In addition to this, two nurses were detached as part of 
Dr. George Heuer's team at Evacuation Hospital No. i. Casual nurses were 
assigned from time to time to fill the places thus vacated, some of whom stayed 
for only a few days and others became permanent members of the staff and re- 
mained with the Unit until the end of the war. Their names are as follows: 

19 



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R A 



L 



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T 



O R 



Y 



Bessie Baker, Chief Nii 
Ruth A. E. Adamson 
Annie Barnard 
Marion Beal 
Bertha Beers 
Jesse Lee Berry 
Gertrude I. Bunting 
Gertrude H. BowHng 
Ruth Bridge 
Mary E. Bunting 
Emma E. Carter 
AHce G. Carr 
Caroline B. Chick 
Jean E. Coons 
Claire R. P. Craigen 
Ruth Cushman 
Eva S. Dean 
Margaret Denniston 
Katheryn Ellicott 
Helen Mar Erskine 
Amy E. Faulkner 

Bertha E 



ORIGINAL UNIT NURSES 

rse Josephine Frazer 

Abigail Foley 

Corinna D. French 

Neely Frierson 

Mary A. Goldthwaite 

Isabel F. Grant 

Maude H. Hall 

Elizabeth Harlan 

Celeste Janvier 

Eleanor Jones 

Ethel Louise Jones 

Nancy F. Keen 

Lyda King 

Miriam E. Knowles 

Theresa Kraker 

Ruby L La Bier 

Maye M. Liphart 

Mary G. Lyman 

May M. McCandless 

Aline Mergy 

Agnes Meyer 
Weisbrod Catherine 



Fannie C. Michael 
Angele R. Millner 
Madeline Moysey 
Eleanor L. Myer 
Elizabeth Nelson 
Evelyn Oliver 
Bessie W. Omohundro 
Helen S. Packard 
Gladys Perot 
Marie L. Quigley 
June A. Ramsey 
Agness M. Raymond 
Mabel Reed 
Ann S. Rogers 
Margaret W. Sayres 
Margaret Sinclair 
Mary A. Shipley 
Pauline B. Stock 
Olive L Thompson 
Eurith Trax 
Laura D. Venable 
M. Wright 



CASUAL NURSES PRESENT AT END OF WAR 



Christine M. Adams 
Florence M. Bailly 
Clara J. Farnsworth 



Helen M. Gainey 
Estelle G.Hewitt 
Cazenova Lamar-Miller 



Rhoda E. MacVarish 
Annie McKay 
Anna E. Manson 



The nursing staff was at many times entirely inadequate in numbers to 
cope with the volume of work in the hospital, and in consequence was at 
times reduced to a dangerous condition of exhaustion. Their devotion and un- 
tiring industry never slackened, and they earned the well-merited appreciation 
of all those who were thrown in contact with them, either as associates or as 
patients. 

The various changes above described resulted in bringing to Base Hospital 
No. i8, during the time from the early summer of 1918 to the fall, the period of 
greatest activity of the war, a considerably altered personnel, but with numbers 



20 



GENERAL HISTORY 



which were still about equivalent to its original strength. At this point it should 
be noted that Base Hospital No. i8 was organized on the old tables of strength 
which were designed to supply personnel for a base hospital with 500 beds. It 
was placed in a hospital which actually had 1,000 beds, and which was enlarged 
by tent expansion to a possible 1,300. No corresponding change in its strength 
of staff was ever made. With the beginning of the active and intensive engage- 
ment in large military movements by the American Army in the latter part of 
May and the early days of June, the strength of the Hospital was further reduced 
by the temporary detachment of surgical teams to the various forward areas 
to help in handling the vast flow of casualties which resulted from the greatly 
increased military activity. On the fifth day of June Dr. Bertram M. Bernheim, 
with Dr. John C. Lyman and Dr. Virgil P. Sydenstricker, Miss Harlan, Miss 
Bridge, and Sergeant Carter and Private Woodard, were sent on temporary duty 
as a surgical team. On the Fourth of July Dr. Harvey B. Stone, Dr. Wharton 
and Dr. William Happ, with Miss Cushman and Miss Thompson, Sergeant 
Scanlon and Corporal Brewster, were also detached on a similar mission. On 
July nth, Dr. Harvey B. Stone returned to Base Hospital No. 18, and his place 
was taken by Dr. Charles Watt with the team. On July 15th Dr. Verne R. 
Mason, with Miss Stock and Miss Bowling and Privates Petre and Ryan, were 
temporarily detached as a shock team. It thus happened that through a con- 
siderable part of the summer of 1918 the officer staff of the Hospital was greatly 
reduced, particularly on the surgical side, and for a period of over one month 
there was only one member of the general surgical staff remaining at the Hos- 
pital. It was during this period which marked the beginning of the great Allied 
counter-offensive, the cleaning of the German salient between Soisson and 
Rheims, and the subsequent great thrusting back of the Germans out of Northern 
France, that the maximum activity of the Hospital occurred. The advanced 
hospitals soon became crowded to overflowing with wounded who had to be 
rapidly evacuated to make room for the succeeding admissions. Trainload 
after trainload of these men were sent to all the base hospitals along the lines 
of communication, and this Unit being situated in one of the most advanced 
hospital areas, received a goodly proportion of these cases. At the periods of 
greatest influx of wounded the evacuation hospitals were unable to perform even 
the first operations on many hundreds of cases, so that for two months or more, 
particularly during September and October, Base Hospital No. 18 acted as an 
evacuation hospital. The cases were received with no previous medical attention 
other than the first-aid dressing in a great many instances, and the character of 
the surgical work was precisely that of an evacuation hospital. The rapid 
accumulation of such cases made it impossible to retain them for any length of 
time, so that they were promptly sent further along the lines of communication 

21 



GENERAL HISTORY 



to clear the hospital for the reception of fresh wounded. At this time the officers, 
nurses and enlisted men were divided so far as possible into night and day shifts, 
and for intervals of days and even weeks, the operating room was in practically 
continual use twenty-four hours each day. The enthusiastic, unfailing and in- 
telligent service which was rendered by the entire staff of doctors, nurses and 
enlisted men will always be a source of undying satisfaction to all of those who 
were privileged to witness it, and who have interest and pride in the achieve- 
ments of Base Hospital No. i8 at heart. 

About ten days before the signing of the armistice, the stubbornness of 
the German resistance appreciably diminished. Coincident with this, the re- 
covery of large areas of territory in the north of France had made possible the 
reopening of better railroad communication with the coast by direct lines. These 
two facts combined to materially reduce the volume of work coming into the 
hospital, and even before the armistice was concluded, there had been a very per- 
ceptible relaxation of the strain of work. On the cessation of hostilities, of 
course, the admission of freshly wounded cases stopped completely, and except 
for one or two convoys of patients who were transferred from more advanced 
hospitals which were being emptied in preparation for their movement forward 
with the Army of Occupation into Germany, there was very little work of any 
sort entering the hospital. At the same time efforts were being made to transfer 
back to America all patients who were so seriously injured or ill that their 
prompt and complete recovery was unHkely. As a consequence of this prepara- 
tion, most of the patients in the hospital who required any active attention were 
evacuated toward the coast, and only a relatively few convalescents remained 
behind. 

Then began the period of waiting for orders to close the hospital and begin 
the return trip to America. There were persistent rumors that Base Hospital 
No. 1 8 would be one of the earliest medical organizations to be sent home. The 
first official confirmation of these rumors come in the form of a telegram on 
December 21, 1918, ordering the Unit to prepare for transportation to the 
United States. The following weeks were utilized in transacting the many details 
necessary to prepare the Hospital for departure. Patients were evacuated as 
rapidly as possible, the property of the Hospital checked up and turned over to 
the proper supply officers, the personnel provided with the many official docu- 
ments necessary before they could return home, and those possessions, personal 
and general, which were to be taken back, boxed and labeled; finally, on January 
20, 1919, the Unit entrained from Bazoilles-sur-Meuse to St. Nazaire, France. 

Three days and nights were spent on a French train with the usual discom- 
forts of troop movements in France. Eating, sleeping and such washing as was 
done, all had to be performed in the same restricted space with many people 

22 



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Y 



crowded in together, but the fact that we were moving toward home went far to 
counteract the physical discomforts. 

Upon arriving at St. Nazaire the nurses were sent to La Baule, France, to 
await embarkation, and the rest of the Unit was sent to Camp No. i. On Janu- 
ary 31, 1919, the officers and men boarded the Finland to return home. They 
sailed on February i, 1919, and arrived in New York on February 14, 1919, 
just exactly twenty months from the day of departure from the same port on 
the same transport to St. Nazaire on the way over. A week was spent at Camp 
Merritt, N.J., awaiting instructions, and the officers and men were then trans- 
ferred to Camp Upton, Long Island, N.Y. Here, with the exception of three of 
the officers, the Unit was discharged from the service on February 25, 1919. The 
nurses, who sailed later on the Heridia, did not arrive in America until February 
27, 1919. They were sent to their homes on furlough awaiting final discharge, 
which was sent to them by mail. 




t^i^if^'^i^'-iv;,^''^^;^:-'-'^^:^!^- "'Shy- ■ 



FERRY AT NEW YORK 



23 



CHATEAU BAZOILLES 



4 NY chronological narration, concerning this subject, must, of necessity, 

/-% be extremely disjointed, and based as much upon tradition as fact, 

"*" owing to the complete destruction, during the hectic days of the first 

revolution, of all the archives, both ecclesiastical and governmental, of Bazoilles, 

as well as of the chateau itself. 

Sufihce it to say that from what scant authentic notes are available, Bazoilles 
was a flourishing city during the ninth century, at which time, it is reasonable to 
suppose, the original chateau, always the abode of the "seigneur," was in exist- 
ence. The first obtainable mention of the actual chateau is a casual reference 
to the same contained in a church document of the eleventh century. 

From irrefutable sources it has been ascertained that, prior to the city's 
destruction and its rebuilding as a village in the fourteenth century, there were 
two lords' estates, one large and one small, of which our home represents the 
vestige of the former. There were, as well, an abbey and a convent of Templars, 
the latter situated in a neighboring forest and the chimes of which were, at the 
time of its razing, thrown into a large subterranean source or branch of the 
Meuse called the "Ditch of the Bells." The remains of an old Roman road, run- 
ning from Grand to Langres and Toul, and the crumbling abutments of an ancient 
Roman bridge may still be seen, nor far from the village, while the site of a large 
camp, dating from the time of Julien the Apostate, is thought to be the historic 
Roman station of Novio Magus. Certain it is that the surrounding country teems 
with places of historic interest, one needing merely to mention that Julius 
Csesar is supposed to have fought a great battle near a neighboring village, 
while, it is reported, Charlemagne mobilized his great army at the adjoining town, 
Liffol-le-Grand. 

In its hey-day, the village boasted a renowned forge, a windmill and a water- 
driven mill, as well as a large and productive farm belonging to the Abbots of 
Moremont. 

Of the old city, the only traces are one of the wings of the church and a most 
antique dungeon and block-house. The latter was one of the terminations of a 
wall and wing of the feudal chateau, and reposes, as a pigeonnier, upon the lawn 

24 



CHATEAU BAZOILL 



of the present smaller but more modern edifice, which was not built until con- 
siderably after the last revolution, approximately 1845. Under this pigeon 
tower there is a subterranean passage, and it is still possible to define the masonry 
of a vaulted dungeon, to the very thick walls of which are fastened heavy rings, 
formerly used for fastening the manacles which were attached to the prisoners. 

Many English visitors have aptly remarked the Anglo-French architecture 
of the present small but attractive building, and exclaimed upon the presence of 
the British lion, graven in the stone armorials of the facade. The owners were 
no other than the descendants of the well-known Drummonds of Scotland, who 
voluntarily accompanied their relative and king, James, into his tragic exile, and 
who have intermarried with many noble French as well as Scotch families. 

In this Drummond family there have been two queens: Arabella, the wife of 
king Robert Stuart of Scotland, and Marguerite, who married James III of 
Scotland. 

Probably the most brilliant representative, in France, of this illustrious 
family, was Charles Mackenzie Drummond, Vicomte and last Comte de Melfort, 
Lieutenant-Colonel d'Etat Major, Ofificier de Legion d'Honneur, Chevalier de 
St. Louis and of St. Ferdinand of Spain, etc. 

The last owner was the Baronne de Melfort who endowed many charitable 
institutions in the neighborhood and who spent much more of her time than her 
ancestors upon her Bazoilles estate. The latter is now in the courts, the bulk of 
it having been bequeathed to the Order of St. Benedictine. 

There are one or two romances connected with the place but space does not 
permit of their detailing. In the war of 1870, the village was occupied by the Prus- 
sians, and, it was during this time that one of the Baronne's sisters, the widow of 
a German, met some of the erstwhile officer-friends of her husband. She arranged 
a large dinner for the Prussian general and officers, much to the indignation of 
her sister and others of the family, who refused to attend, the upshot of it being 
that the Huns had a rather chilly reception. 

To one who, as the writer, has tramped the surrounding country and, by 
interviewmg and supping with them, gleaned from the peasants anecdotes and 
traditions of the various ancient communities in southern Vosges and northern 
Haute-Marne, there are so many items of interest that it is difficult to refrain 
from including some of them in these necessarily limited notes upon Chateau 
Bazoilles. At least, it would seem most incomplete to cease this rather discon- 
nected sketch without explaining the apparently patois-origin name of the 
place. Bazoilles is derived from the Latin word basis, meaning lowland, and from 
the Gaulish word oye, or oies, meaning geese, the implication being that it is 
a fine place for geese. The name is appropriate! The "o" is pronounced long 
and the "ll's" are softened, in the correct patois. 

25 



SURGICAL SERVICE 



THE administrative organization of the surgical service at Base Hospital 
No. 1 8 was so arranged that all the surgical specialties were intimately co- 
ordinated with the general surgical service, but in such a way as to inter- 
fere in the least possible degree with the independent freedom of each specialty. 
The same idea guided the arrangement of the surgical buildings. Thus in a 
single barrack, modified and added to as necessary, was housed the X-ray De- 
partment, the Sterilizing Plant, the General Operating Room, the Surgical Supply 
Room, the Eye Clinic, the Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic, the Dental Clinic, and the 
Dental Laboratory. The barracks nearest to this building were utilized as surgical 
wards, and the one immediately adjacent was connected by an enclosed corridor 
with the surgical building and reserved as a pre-operation ward. The operating 
room itself was converted into a single enclosure where all surgical work, general 
and special, clean or infected, was done. The principle of having several smaller 
rooms reserved for special types of operative cases was entirely abandoned. 
The single large room accommodated a larger number of tables, economized the 
time of nurses, doctors and orderlies, greatly simplified the storage and distribu- 
tion of instruments and supplies and, facilitated by the absence of doors, passages 
and turns, the handling of stretchers. The theo'r^etical objection to operating on 
clean and infected cases in the same room was not supported by a single actual 
incident in which harm came from this practice. There was no conflict of interest 
in the use of a single large operating room, since every doctor having a case to 
operate reported it to a single member of the surgical staff whose duty it was to 
arrange the operating program in advance. 

The supplies of instruments and surgical materials were, generally speaking, 
adequate. The equipment of the hospital had been so well chosen by those 
entrusted with this duty before our entrance into active service, that only oc- 
casionally was it necessary to secure additional supplies. 

The Unit contained among its personnel a number of highly trained and most 
competent surgical nurses, to whose ability and untiring industry was due in large 
part the unbroken smoothness with which the operating room functioned. The 

26 



URGICAL SERVIC 



physical difficulties which occasionally arose, such as the tendency for moisture 
to accumulate on the skylights and drip down, and the erratic behavior which 
the steam sterilizing plant at times displayed, were due to the fact that the 
wooden barracks put up as emergency structures are not completely adapted to 
serve as surgical theaters. 

Base Hospital No. i8 was in one way most favorably situated in the A.E.F. 
During the early months of the war the region about Bazoilles was used as a 
training area for the divisions of the original first army, the first, second, twenty- 
sixth and forty-second. At this time the surgical service was largely occupied 
as a camp hospital in treating the diseases ^nd injuries that would naturally 
occur in a population of many thousands of young vigorous men engaged in 
great physical activity. Later, when the trqops were moved into the line, the 
hospital began to serve as an advanced base, receiving cases that had been 
operated in the evacuation hospitals forw;ard, and following many of them 
through to complete recovery. This was the period in which a rich experience 
was gained in the practical application an^d value of the developments in war 
surgery that had been worked out by our'French and British colleagues. The 
problem of wound healing, primary, delayed primary, and secondary suture, 
dressings and antiseptics, were subjects tjiat received absorbed attention and 
upon which clear personal conclusions were reached. The results obtained in 
shortening convalescence, diminishing loss of function, and reducing disfigure- 
ment were highly gratifying. Still later in the war when American troops in 
large numbers went into the most violent and protracted engagements, the work 
of Base Hospital No. i8 took on still another aspect. Being only about sixty 
miles behind the line, it was used as a reserve evacuation hospital, and as those 
forward filled up it received during September, October and November of 1918 
convoy after convoy of unoperated casualties, and served as a first operating 
station for hundreds of cases. This again shifted the principal surgical interest 
to the primary operation or debridement of wounds, and to shock. As soon as the 
patients were sufficiently recovered to stand transportation it was necessary to 
send them further back to make room for the freshly wounded. 

The surgical staff has fluctuated greatly both in number and personnel. Dr. 
Finney, Dr. Fisher and Dr. Baer, who came with the Unit, were relieved after a 
few months for service as general consultants, and the vacancies filled by securing 
Dr. Watt and Dr. Dunn. During the Chateau-Thierry fighting three surgical 
teams were busy at evacuation hospitals, and during one of the busiest times 
that the hospital has ever known there was only one surgeon on the general 
surgical staff. The specialists and medical men were acting as anesthetists and 
assistants and the orthopedic and genito-urinary men became general operators. 
Again during part of the Argonne fighting the staff was short-handed and were 

2-] 



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O 



R Y 



hard driven by the pressure of work. For a period of several weeks there was a 
regular night and day shift of surgical teams and for days at a time the operating 
room was in use twenty-four hours out of twenty-four. 

It is very dif^cult to estimate the results of treatment in an advanced hospital, 
since so many cases must be evacuated before the final outcome is certain. But 
in general there is reason to believe that the standard of work done and the results 
obtained were satisfactory. 

The enlisted men who served as orderlies in the operating room became 
exceedingly valuable and efficient. They were changed frorn time to time so 
that a group of some fourteen men became trained to the duties of an operating 
room. In a similar way many of the nurses were put into the operating room for 
varied periods of service and became familiar with the requirements of war 
surgery. 

This occasion cannot be passed without a word about the wonderful spirit of 
the wounded men. The fortitude with which they endured their injuries, the 
cheer and courage with which they faced their present and future trials, and the 
co-operation with which they supported the doctors contributed in many in- 
stances to securing unexpectedly happy results. 




FERRY AT HOBOKEN 
28 



THE ORTHOPEDIC SERVICE 



THE Orthopedic Branch of General Surgery was organized and established 
by Dr. W. S. Baer. A considerable amount of equipment, including a 
Hawley table, was brought from the States and this supply was later 
supplemented by the Red Cross and the Army. When the hospital was opened 
in July, 191 7, the various splints, Balkan frames, Bradford frames and accessory 
apparatus necessary for the treatment of bone and joint conditions were as- 
sembled in available form upon Ward R. 

Dr. Baer was summoned to the medical consultant office at Neufchateau in 
November, 1917, and Dr. Graves took charge of the work, remaining until 
July 4, 1918. Following the departure of Dr. Graves this branch was carried on 
by Dr. Geo. R. Dunn. 

The work consisted of the classification and disposal of a large number of 
chronic bone and joint conditions which required a larger time of hospitalization 
than was practicable in this area, as well as the treatment of the fractures and 
joint injuries caused by battle wounds. 

Early in June, 1918, compound fractures and various joint injuries resulting 
from gunshot wounds were admitted in large numbers. These cases were kept 





ox THE FINLAND 



DECK LIFE 



29 



GENERAL HISTORY 



for periods of time varying from a few days to a few weeks. All wounds were 
treated with Dakin's solution or Dichloramine-T and, when possible, closed by 
secondary suture at the earliest date consistent with safety. Extension appa- 
ratus of one form or another was employed as the method of choice in the treat- 
ment of these cases. Movement was instigated at an early date in all joint 
lesions where practicable. 

During the months of September and October, the cases remained for but 
very short periods of time owing to the demand for hospital beds in this area. 
In many instances merely a slight readjustment or reapplication of the splint 
was necessary. Many compound fractures were admitted, numbers of which had 
received no operative treatment — some of them arriving with first-aid dressing 
and splint as applied on the field. 

It was possible at intervals to evacuate Class D patients to the sea ports 
for immediate transportation to the United States and the less seriously dis- 
abled soldiers to hospitals situated at points more remote from the front. A 
small group of cases of special interest or unfit for transportation were kept and 
practically carried to the completion of treatment. 



30 



THE ROENTGEN LABORATORY 



THE books of this department show that the laboratory began opera- 
tion November i, 1917. The first observation made was a plate taken 
for a suspected fracture of the wrist, Miss Edith Trax, of our nursing staff, 
being the first patient. 

The difficulties encountered by Dr. Waters in assembling what has since 
proven to have been one of the best equipped Roentgen laboratories in the 
A.E.F. would no doubt be interesting, were he here to write of them. To his 
untiring efforts, however, have been due the successful operation of the labora- 
tory. 

The majority of work throughout this period did not vary greatly from that 
encountered in civil practice, with the exception of times when this Unit was act- 
ing as an evacuation hospital, as during the advance of our troops at Chateau- 
Thierry, Saint Mihiel and the Argonne Forest. At such times when we were 
acting as an evacuation hospital, the character of work was confined almost en- 
tirely to the localization of foreign bodies. 

Our equipment for this class of cases consisted of an old type of Gaiffe coil, 
which, while antiquated and cumbersome, gave wonderful illumination on the 
fluorescent screen. Two methods only were used in localization of foreign 
bodies during these times. The Strohl and so-called "twenty-six degree" methods 
were used, the latter being especially useful for foreign bodies located within the 
pelvic cavity. 

All preoperative cases passed through the Roentgen laboratory before being 
sent to the preoperative wards. Many examinations were made for suspected 
foreign bodies which were negative, the vast majority, however, having anywhere 
from one to one hundred foreign bodies present. One case in particular, which 
passed through the laboratory during the Chateau-Thierry action, contained by 
actual count, fifty-nine foreign bodies in the lower extremities and apparently had 
fully as many more scattered throughout various remaining portions of his body. 
The presence of all foreign bodies and their location was always reported. Fre- 
quently in cases where there were multiple small foreign bodies, such as in the 
case just cited, they were reported in group. 

31 



NERAL HISTORY 



On an average, the laboratory was able to make between eleven and twelve 
observations per hour, which proved to be, from the standpoint of speed, suffi- 
cient to keep a reasonable number of cases ahead of the surgeons. Foreign bodies 
were located in almost every conceivable spot in the entire body, as will be noted 
from the appended chart. 

Many freak courses of machine gun bullets were noted in our observations, 
one striking instance being a case of a soldier who was hit by a machine gun bullet 
in the anterior, middle surface of the left arm. The bullet traveled up the arm, 
across through the tissues of the neck above the clavicle, missing the oesophagus 
and trachea, and traveled down the right arm to a position corresponding to its 
point of entrance on the opposite side, the point of the bullet being reversed, i.e., 
upward. 

Localization of foreign bodies in the eye were made by the Sweet method. 
Comparatively few localizations disclosed the presence of foreign bodies in the 
eye, our records showing but thirty cases^ 

Fractures were extremely common and, in the vast majority of cases, were 
compound. The appended chart will show the number of fractures together with 
locations. 

Bone disease was extremely rare and consisted mostly of osteomyelitis and 
periostitis. Very few specific bone lesions were seen and our records show but 
three cases of sarcoma of the bone. Tubercular bone lesions were extremely rare 
among the soldiers, whereas, in the French civilian work, which came to this 
hospital from time to time, we saw a considerable number of cases, especially 
among children. 

A large number of dental radiograms were made, the teeth of the men in the 
A.E.F. being none too good. 

Perhaps the most interesting work done in this laboratory was in connection 
with the examination of the chest for pulmonary conditions. During the early 
spring of 1918 and the fall of 1918, opportunity was given us to study two types 
of broncho-pneumonia, the type occurring in the spring being such as is seen in 
the ordinary type of broncho-pneumonia; the type, however, seen in the fall being 
entirely different in many respects. The Roentgen picture seen in this type of 
broncho-pneumonia offered no particular difficulty in Roentgen diagnosis if 
seen at the end of forty-eight hours following onset. Previous to that it became 
extremely difficult and almost impossible to say, with any degree of accuracy, 
that a pulmonary involvement was present, and if present, whether or not it was 
a tubercular invasion. The characteristic sign, from a purely Roentgenological 
standpoint, was the coalescing infiltration which appeared, irregularly scattered 
throughout the lung with a tendency to appear nearer the hilus than the peri- 
phery. Such areas were always seen in this type of broncho-pneumonia and 

32 



THE ROENTGEN LABORATORY 



frequently extensive areas in the region of the hilus were seen, which might well 
have been mistaken for an early malignant condition. These dense areas did 
not give the Roentgen appearance of the density seen in lobar pneumonia, except 
late in the disease when these areas would appear much more dense. These co- 
alescing areas were not seen at the periphery of the lung in any of the cases under 
observation in this laboratory. Peribronchial infiltration did not tend to run to 
the periphery or any part of the lung, except at the apices, at which point, we 
frequently saw both anterior and posterior apical bronchi involved. The coales- 
cing areas referred to above were mostly seen in the dependent lobes. 

The Roentgen findings reported as being coalescing areas of infiltration were 
frequently found at autopsy to have been accurately described as to location, 
but, on section of lung, found to be almost true abscess formations and had the 
patient lived, undoubtedly would have resulted in multiple abscesses scattered 
throughout the affected lung. A surprisingly few cases, as compared with the 
epidemic of the spring, developed empyema, the explanation of which may be 
that this type of broncho-pneumonia had a much higher mortality and the death 
usually occurred at a much earlier date. 

Many of these cases, following convalescence, showed numerous small calcified 
areas usually seen in the inter-lobar regions, which were undoubtedly sub-pleural 
lymph nodes which had become organized. The Roengten picture of such a type 
of pneumonia, in a well developed case, was most striking and gave positive 
evidence of the existence of a pneumonic involvement. 

In connection with pulmonary examinations, surprisingly few cases of active 
pulmonary tuberculosis were seen. Perhaps the most interesting observation of 
all chest cases was that of an enormous pericardial effusion, of which Doctor 
Stone has reported. 

The work in this laboratory was greatly facilitated by the cordial co-operation 
of the surgeons and internists, which existed throughout the entire activities of 
the' laboratory. 

The total observations made in this laboratory from its opening on November 
I, 191 7, to December 25, 1918, were 5,084. Of these 960 were negative. 



33 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



WHEN the Base Hospital at Bazoilles was organized in the summer of 191 7, 
Doctor Boggs divided the medical service into acute and chronic medical, 
and contagious. During the fall and winter of 1917, we were fairlybusy 
as we were the only base hospital in this training area, and naturally we had 
our share of contagion. 

As first organized, we used Ward K, which was divided by partitions into an 
observation department, a measles department, and two small rooms for menin- 
gitis. Ward J we used for scarlet. There was a fair amount of the latter, and 
during November and December, 191 7, we were unfortunate in having cases 
among our own detachment. Among them were two fatal cases — Edward Linton, 
one of our students, who had been on a ward in which a scarlet had developed, 
and Miss Knowles, who was nursing on a medical ward. The cases were for the 
most part slight and the men only suffered from six weeks' isolation. 

In January, 1918, we were informed that the hospital at Neufchateau would 
take the contagious cases and we would only have to take care of those developing 
in our hospital. On this basis we had Ward J remodeled to take care of all con- 
tagion, with a side corridor and cubicle-like compartments for observation, diph- 
theria, scarlet, measles, mumps, and meningitis, each separated by a partition 
with separate isolation. The ward was light until June, 1918, when we were told 
to take the contagious diseases of the entire hospital center (seven bases) except 
measles and mumps. The Red Cross had built porches for us, one for each com- 
partment. With the use of these porches as overflow wards we have managed to 
get along, using K Ward for meningitis carriers and convalescents. We have 
been fortunate in having a very low morbidity among our Unit in contagious 
diseases, only a rare case cropping up — during the winter of 191 8. 



34 



THE NOSE, THROAT AND EAR DEPARTMENT 



DURING the first nine months of work at Base Hospital No. i8 by far 
the larger number of cases were patients suffering from diseases en- 
countered in civil life. Owing to exposure and poor living conditions of 
the troops there were a good many respiratory infections with the usual throat, 
sinus and ear complications. Consequently there was much work for the Nose, 
Throat and Ear Department. 

The equipment brought over was rather meagre but at the same time sufficient 
to handle all the ordinary things that came to hand. From time to time necessary 
instruments were added from the Medical Supply Depot of the Army and in the 
beginning by aid of the Red Cross Fund. At present everything can be done 
except intra nasal sinus work, and this can be cared for in a palliative way. 

On August 3rd, four days after the first patients were received, the first 
operation under general anesthetic was an acute mastoid. Up to the time of the 
big drive when Base Hospital No. 18 functioned as an evacuation hospital, 
ten per cent of the operative work was done by the Nose, Throat and Ear De- 
partment. Perhaps a few figures might be interesting; during the first year, 
tonsillectomies, 125; nasal operations (local anesthesia, mostly septal work), 20; 
mastoids, 22 ; radical antrum, 5 ; foreign body nose, i ; foreign body oesophagus, i ; 
retropharyngeal abscess, i ; bronchoscopic examination, i. The medical students 
assisted at all operations and in the clinic. A series of four lectures was given for 
them in addition to the instruction given in the wards and clinic work. The 
large variety of material especially in acute conditions afforded excellent oppor- 
tunities for diagnosis and treatment. Of course, they had no experience in 
tuberculous conditions. 

In general the work was divided as follows : operations and ward consultations 
in the morning; out-patient clinic in the afternoon; the attendance varied from 
five to fifty patients. During January and February, the out-patient department 
was particularly heavy. There was an unusually large number of cases of Vin- 
cent's angina and peritonsillar abscesses. There were a great many acute otitis 

35 



G 



N 



E R A L 



H 



TORY 



cases, too. Many French civilians were treated in the clinic, and frequent con- 
sultations made with the Red Cross hospital for civilians and refugees at Neuf- 
chateau, some operative work being done. The results were quite satisfactory 
on the whole. 

A great deal of ear and nose work was done for the aviation service — both on 
the wards and in the out-patient department. During the past three months 
Doctor Edward Collins, of Philadelphia, has been attached on temporary duty 
and very ably caring for the work in this department. 




THE CONVOY 



36 



HISTORY OF THE EYE DEPARTMENT OF 
BASE HOSPITAL No. 18 



WHILE occasional minor ocular maladies presented themselves for treat- 
ment, no actual eye clinic was organized until the Unit's arrival at 
Bazoilles. In this connection it may be of interest to note that an eye 
case was the first to be admitted to Base Hospital No. i8, being an acute, mon- 
ocular pemphigus conjunctivae. 

In the summer of 1917, owing to the lack of proper space for an eye clinic, 
and pending the construction of the dispensary building, the well-equipped 
French base hospital, Rebeval Barracks, at Neufchateau, was placed at our 
disposal through the courtesy of the Medecin-Chef and the Oculiste. By com- 
posing a schedule which did not interfere with that of the French physicians, ad- 
vantage was taken of this happy arrangement, and patients needing refraction 
were daily transported, in ambulances, thither and back, for their tests, though 
inflammatory treatments were conducted in our own wards and operations per- 
formed in our own surgical ampitheatre from the outset. 

Later, when the dispensary building was completed, a combined refraction 
and waiting room 22^ feet by 8}4 feet and a dark room 5^ feet by 4^ feet soon 
proved all too small for the adequate handling of the work and the comfort of the 
two oculists employed therein. 

During all this time, while the results with inflammatory cases were eminently 
satisfactory, the refraction cases were obliged to order their lenses, by mail, from 
private concerns in Paris, and at least six weeks were thus lost in the delivery of 
the lenses. Moreover, officers and men of constantly moving units often entirely 
failed to receive their frequently reforwarded spectacles. 

In the spring of 191 8, however, this situation was partially remedied by the 
addition of two more rooms, one 22^2 feet by 9>^ feet, equipped for two more 
refractionists, as well as for special examinations, such as perimetry, etc., the 
other, 14 feet by ii>^ feet, to house the Optical Unit. This latter organization 
consisted of a team of skilled opticians, sent from a group especially selected and 
mobilized in the United States, and supplied with quite a complete stock of 
lenses of various strengths and a uniform size to fit a standard spectacle frame, 
all being issued gratis to the patient, while a full set of appliances and tools for 
adjustments and repairs were included. Thus it was possible for patients to have 
the finished product handed them within ten minutes after the completion of 

37 



NERAL HISTORY 



their refraction tests. In these quarters it was possible for three physicians to 
work with comfort, and, at one time, four carried on the chnic with reasonable 
satisfaction. But the clinic, drawing work as it did, from twenty-one base, thir- 
teen evacuation, ten field, and five camp hospitals, besides three convalescent 
camps and thirty-three other large miscellaneous military organizations in the 
sector, and being the most advanced of the eye centers in France, grew by leaps 
and bounds so that it soon became necessary to move from the again cramped 
and insufftcient quarters. 

In the autumn of 1918, adjoining hospital barracks were put at our dis- 
posal and herein was constructed a large and ideally arranged eye center. 

a. Dispensary Building — 

1. Waiting Room, 31 feet by ii feet. 

2. Main Refraction Room, 22 feet by 18^ feet. 

This room was equipped with four testing booths, the latter painted black and 
provided with heavy black curtains so that the dark room tests, such as oblique 
illumination, pupillary reactions, retinoscopy, and ophthalmoscopy could be con- 
ducted therein, and without removing patients and losing time, the curtains 
could be drawn aside and the distant refraction or muscle tests immediately 
carried on to completion, the latter two being controlled by individual electric 
switches directly at the examiner's hand. In this manner four oculists could be 
continuously employed at the same time and a volume of refraction work thor- 
oughly and expeditiously handled, each booth containing complete equipment. 
As a further aid, two clerks' desks were attached to each of the side walls and the 
examiner's dictated remarks jotted down on the histories as the tests progressed, 
again saving much otherwise unnecessarily lost motion. 

3. Optician's Room, 12 feet by 10 feet. 

From here the patient entered one of two doors, standing side by side at the 
end of the room — one to the inflammatory room, the other to the optical depart- 
ment. In the latter were six trained opticians continuously employed on the 
making, mounting, adjusting, or repairing of spectacles. Here were well fitted 
benches, shelves, cabinets, etc., and a goodly stock of lenses and frames, while a 
clerk took charge of the mail orders and typed the optical correspondence. 

4. Inflammatory Room, 9^^ feet by 5^ feet. 

Contained electric sterilizer, instrument and medicine cabinet, table, chair 
for minor operations, etc., and here the lesser medical and surgical treatments 
were conducted. 

38 



HISTORY OF THE EYE DEPARTMENT OF No. 18 



5. Special Testing Room, ^}4 feet by 5>^ feet. 

In this room perimetric and scotametric studies were conducted and ex- 
ceptionally nervous or ill cases examined, where, owing to the privacy, better 
results could be achieved in these instances. 

6. Private History Taking and Refraction Room, fully equipped for two pa- 
tients for officers and nurses, 22>^ feet by %}4 feet, with adjacent dark room, 5>^ 
feet by ^}4 feet. 

b. Eye Operating Room. 

This was an excellently arranged room, I5>^ feet by 9^2 feet, containing all 
necessary equipment for any eye operation and unusually well lighted by two 
windows. In this connection it may be of interest to speak of the presence and 
constant employment of electro-magnets of these sizes: one so-called "giant," 
one medium size, and one very small. The operators working with these magnets 
in this eye center have secured gratifying results in the removal of intraocular, 
magnetizable, foreign bodies. 

c. Eye Ward, 16 feet by 20 feet. 

This ward contained 50 beds and six small rooms besides, each measuring 
9>^ feet by 7 feet, and used for ward office, washroom, dressing room, supply 
room, kitchen, etc. All cases here were solely ophthalmic ones and there were 
always many eye cases, having other wounds or injuries, in the other surgical 
and medical wards, while all officer eye patients were kept on the officers' general 
wards. 

Before closing a description of this eye center, it would seem well to mention 
the exceptional value, in the diagnosing of the rarer clinical conditions, of the 
proximity and close co-operation of the X-ray and the laboratory, besides, of 
course, emphasizing the general and special medical and surgical consultation 
which were always right at hand. The writer believes that it has made feasible 
the study and reporting of many exceptional cases which must, otherwise, and in 
routine civil practice, have been impossible. This, and the facility of securing the 
Surgeon-General's records of cases, and following up patients, has been the means 
of shedding much light upon many ocular conditions which have, in the literature 
obtainable in times past, been obscure in both aetiology and clinical progress. 

Prior to leaving France, the clinic had built up to quite a respectable point, 
viewed purely from the angle of the volume of work done, the dispensary treat- 
ing between fifty and seventy patients a day and the eye ward being, as a rule, 
well filled and overflowing into other wards, while the optical department re- 
ceived close to fifteen hundred prescriptions for glasses monthly. 

39 



DENTAL DEPARTMENT 



THE dental department of the A.E.F. was born aboard the good ship Fin- 
land, under the supervision of Base Hospital No. i8, and there it earned the 
reputation it has ever since carried . All those toothaches at themorning sick 
call were lined up in the aisle above the galley on the starboard deck and there 
the boys were made comfortable to the tune of the swells of the Atlantic. It 
was the custom of the dental surgeon to scan the crowd, making his choice as to 
turns. The patient selected would be seated in the corner with the top of the rail 
as head rest, and in this position, with only a small kit of emergency instru- 
ments, the boys were given all the attention desired — at least until their troubles 
had disappeared. The novelty of this experience was that in fact it was the birth 
of the dental department for those who were to serve in the Amex — on the sea 
and in the midst of the gallant boys of the Eighteenth Infantry. 

Fourteen days of such trials brought us to the harbor of St. Nazaire. It was 
here, under the supervision of Dr. Livius Lankford, one of the dental surgeons 
with Base Hospital No. i8, that the first dental clinic was opened for members 
of the A.E.F. — in Base Hospital No. i. The dental operating room was imme- 
diately opened, and here for six weeks dental care was offered to all those serving 
with the American Forces who were stationed in that locality. This was the first 
dental clinic opened in France, and the service rendered was of such character 
as to call forth praise from all those who received attention — and the appoint- 
ment lists were always taxed to their capacity. 

At the expiration of the duty assignment at St. Nazaire, the clinic there was 
turned over to other dental surgeons, and the surgeon from Base Hospital No. i8 
proceeded to the permanent location of the hospital at Bazoilles. This location 
being in the advanced section of the army zone, here again the honor befell us to 
open the first clinic for those members who served on the firing line and in the 
immediate vicinity. This clinic was opened on July 29, 191 7, and from the start 
it was the plan to make Base Hospital No. 18 clinic the best in France for the 
the boys in khaki. As with the original clinic, so too at Bazoilles, we were always 
taxed to our capacity, and then the ever-increasing number of troops arriving 

40 



D 



N T A L 



D 



A R 



M 



N 



necessitated an addition. Plans were accordingly drawn up and matured, so that 
there would be plenty of accommodation for all. The need of a laboratory for 
prosthetic work was so rapidly developing that it was thought wise to include this 
also in an addition. In the installation of the new clinic, the most modern equip- 
ment was taken into consideration both from an operating room and laboratory 
standpoint, and we were fortunate enough to secure the necessary things for 
both. For some months this clinic was the only one in the locality and thus its 
service was shared by many from far and wide. 

With the increalsed severity of the fighting, the clinic was offered some ex- 
cellent opportunities in the care of face and jaw battle wounds. Concurrent with 
the installation of a group of six new hospitals, the need was seen for a facio- 
maxillary institution and this innovation was developed and supervised by the 
clinic at No. i8, the laboratory at No. i8 taking care of most of the splint and 
other such work for the group. The wards assigned for the care of this work were 
always filled with interesting cases and the work was developed to a very high 
degree. Charts and histories have been taken of every case treated, and very often 
photographs made, so that the work has been recorded in detail in the professional 
records. 




JULY 4TH, 191 7. SAVENAV 



41 



RECEIVING OFFICE 



EARLY DAYS 

WHEN the Receiving Office first came into being on the Finland with the 
appointment of a staff, no one had the most remote conception of its 
responsibihties and possibihties. There was Httle precedent in the 
experience of civihan hospitals to suggest what the Receiving Office would have 
to accomplish; and the representative of our army medical corps at that time, 
by refusing subsequently to sanction any measure that had not been in force in 
barrack hospitals during peace-times at home, proved that he had no under- 
standing of the situation. There was also no stationery of any kind, no record 
forms for anything and no clear idea of forms to be improvised, no suspicion of 
what the problem of disinfestation of verminous patients was to be, no system for 
handling the clothes and property of patients. But the Receiving Office Staff on 
arrival at Bazoilles-sur-Meuse had taken over a ward building used by the 
French for the reception of patients, and one of the rooms into which this building 
was divided had a concrete floor and a wood-burning stove with water system 
that afforded five hot shower baths. It was thus — equipped with five shower 
baths and much enthusiasm — that the members of the first Receiving Office 
organization stood ready to learn from events. 

A few days after arrival, July 31, 1917, the first patients came, a convoy of 
thirty-six in ambulances from the camp hospital of the First Division in training 
at Gondrecourt. They were all seen by the Officer of the Day, bathed, and sent to 
the ward. Their records were made out on paper salvaged from various sources 
and with pencils and pens contributed by members of the staff. Space will not 
be taken to recount the many interesting details of this first experience, such as 
to explain why each separate bundle of clothes was unrolled at least six times, 
or how the money and valuables collected from the patients for safe-keeping 
wandered around from place to place, once turned up under the bed of Doctor 
George Walker, who was then Adjutant, and finally were locked up in Doctor 
Guthrie's trunk. Suffice it to say that by bedtime of that day, the thirty-six 
patients had been admitted to the hospital and the staff was exhausted. 

42 



RECEIVING OFFIC 



The Officer of the Day when these first patients were admitted was Doctor 
C. G. Guthrie. After having gone through the experiences of this day, he im- 
mediately delegated to himself the duties of a new position, that of Receiving 
Officer. With the organization thus under one head instead of the work being 
in charge of whoever happened to be Officer of the Day, and with plenty of op- 
portunity to gain experience, progress, though not rapid, was constant. Sub- 
sequently, part of the building was shared with the Y.M.C.A., but the bathroom 
was jealously guarded and what rooms remained were more economically used. 
Stationery was bought, tentative record forms typewritten and tried out in prac- 
tice, ledger books ruled, a system of recording property in a ruled ledger adopted, 
etc. At that time there was property accountability for each individual soldier 
and no "lost in action" allowance. Each soldier on discharge had to receive back 
each article deposited by him or pay for it; and he expected the return of his own 
clothes, even to the minutest detail. This made it necessary that each article be 
marked before being sent to the laundry, and this was actually done. Other simi- 
lar difficulties were overcome by hard work, most of them arising in trying to 
carry out measures of peace-time organization subsequently found to be im- 
practicable in time of war, and attempting to carry them out without even the 
peace-time machinery. Many more difficulties were about to be surmounted 
when the slowly dawning consciousness of the A.E.F. medical administration re- 
moved them by authorizing some measure requested long before. 

ORGANIZATION AS BASE HOSPITAL 

As the hospital became an established institution, it was apparent that 
efficiency and convenience demanded several functions of the Receiving Office 
organization. In addition to classifying the patients for assignment to wards and 
taking the necessary information for the hospital records, it was the opinion of 
the hospital administration from the beginning that all patients except those 
who were very ill should be disinfested and bathed when necessary at time of 
admission. It was also found convenient to collaborate with the Registrar's 
Office and the Statistical Department so that their record on each patient could at 
least be started in the Receiving Office. The students on duty at the Receiving 
Office carried on, under the direction of the Receiving Officer, a so-called dis- 
pensary practice from units in the vicinity that did not have medical officers, 
amounting to as much as eighty new patients in one day. They also had a so- 
called out-patient department among the French civilians of the neighborhood. 
Other than those in the Receiving Office there were no baths in the hospital and 
these were used for ward patients who could walk. Not infrequently, also, nearby 
units bathed there, all this being done on schedule by, and under direction of, the 
Receiving Office Staff. The collection of patients for discharge was more con- 

43 



GENERAL HISTORY 



veniently done by this office than another; and the running of the ambulances — 
before this function was taken over by the central organization for the group of 
base hospitals when established — both in calling for patients and delivering them 
to their units when discharged to duty, was under the supervision of the Receiv- 
ing Office Staff. And lastly the functions performed by the "vestiare," those of 
receiving and storing, listing, mending, accounting for, and reissuing all of 
patients' clothing and property, both personal and ordnance, was done by this 
organization. Later, when personal accountability of the soldier was abolished 
and we were authorized to turn over to salvage in bulk all Government property 
including clothing collected from patients and reissue other clothing to them on 
discharge, it might perhaps appear that this work would more properly be done 
by the Quartermaster Department. But certainly the plan in force was always 
found satisfactory and before these necessary war-time measures were adopted, 
efficiency demanded that the "vestiare" functions be performed by the same 
organization charged with the admission of patients. 

As the responsibilities of the Receiving Office organization were increased 
the staflf had been enlarged from time to time by permanent assignments and by 
special details of men when large convoys were being admitted. At these times 
also the staffs of the Registrar's Office and the Statistical Department worked in 
collaboration with and as part of the Receiving Office system in getting their 
information. The original building was soon found hopelessly inadequate, and 
measures were considered for meeting this need. Dr. Guthrie, without any previ- 
ous example by which to go, purely out of his imagination of what conditions in 
active hostilities would have to be met, and how to meet them, planned a building 
which fulfilled all subsequent requirements and had but few superfluous accommo- 
dations. Again space does not permit mention of the difficulties of supply and 
labor overcome to make this plant an accomplished fact. But, although never 
entirely completed according to the original plan, after seven months of squab- 
bling for material and detailed supervision of labor, the final plant, a wooden 
shack 40 feet by 140 feet in dimensions, half of which was the original Receiving 
Office remodelled, was sufficiently weather-tight for use. 

Details of the arrangements for the reception and discharge of patients singly 
or in small groups will be omitted. The staff had been organized and enlarged 
and the building planned to handle quickly large convoys of sick and wounded, 
both on stretchers and walking. Then four students or medical officers were on 
duty differentiating the cases and inspecting for contagious disease, venereal 
disease, and infestation with vermin. The staff, as augmented by special details 
of men from other departments associated in the work was composed, all told, of 
about sixty-five men. Some of these acted as clerks, some undressed the patients 
and handled clothes and property, some managed the baths, some acted as 

44 



RECEIVING OFFIC 



barbers, and others as stretcher-bearers and ward ushers. The new building 
afforded twenty-two shower baths and six tables for disinfesting and bathing 
stretcher cases. By using all available floor space and racks along the walls de- 
vised so that stretchers could be piled one above the other, about one hundred and 
twenty stretcher cases might be stored at one time; and there was ample room for 
undressing and inspecting walking cases. Before the new system was put into 
effect and the enlarged quarters available, it commonly took eight, ten and even 
more hours to admit a large convoy, and in one instance where special difficulties 
were encountered, thirteen and one-half hours were consumed in admitting a 
convoy of 293 patients. With the new arrangement a much shorter time was 
required. For instance, on July 23, 191 8, 200 stretcher cases, 112 of which were 
disinfested, and 211 walking cases, 165 of which were disinfested, a total of 411 
cases, 277 disinfested, were admitted in four hours and thirty minutes. Again, 
on July II, 1918, a convoy of 318 stretcher cases, 102 of which were disinfested, 
was admitted in three hours and twenty minutes. The special details of men 
needed to do the work thus rapidly, made a heavy draft on the detachment and 
seriously interfered with the other work of the hospital at these times. However, 
the support of Major G. M. Edwards, who was then Commanding Officer, and 
his interest in the problems to be faced, together with the willing co-operation 
of all members of the Unit, made it possible always to obtain the needed men. 
Although other work was interfered with for several hours, it was not necessary 
to keep all details the entire time consumed in receiving a convoy, and when a 
convoy had been admitted, the work was done and the whole hospital could 
settle down to its normal routine again. The patients had been undressed, 
bathed, disinfested, classified, and sent to the wards in clean pajamas and hospital 
clothes. Their valuables and money had been taken, listed, receipted for and de- 
posited in the safe. The hospital records had been made and the work of both 
the Registrar's Office and the Statistical Department had been started. And 
the patients' clothes had been checked, tabulated and either sent to the sterilizer, 
or stored away prepared for reissue to them when they were discharged to duty, 
or transferred to another hospital. The disinfestation on the wards was done 
away with, and the checking of clothes and making of records did not drag out 
over several days as formerly. 

An integral part of the system was the work of the "vestiare." It had as 
equipment a ward barrack immediately adjoining and connected with the 
Receiving Office building. This was furnished with a numbered locker for every 
bed in the hospital, had a limited amount of storage space for new clothes, ord- 
nance, and salvaged material, and in the end opening on the ward lane there 
was a room with bins for new clothes and a counter over which clothes were 
issued to patients leaving the hospital. For some time the requirements of a 

45 



GENERAL HISTORY 



system devised for peace-time barrack life and almost impracticable in time of 
war were met in spite of the great amount of needless work it entailed. Sub- 
sequently when measures adapted to war-time conditions were authorized, the 
work was done more promptly. The clothing of each patient was handled as 
indicated above, and all this work was done at the time of admission of the 
patient and was usually finished shortly after the reception of a convoy had been 
completed. Any unserviceable article of clothing a patient brought in with him 
was salvaged and a new piece issued in its place. Much of this salvaging, such as 
minor mendings, replacement of buttons, etc., was done in the vestiare by three 
French women employed for that purpose. Eventually, also, the replacement 
of worn-out clothes in the Base Hospital No. i8 detachment was taken over by the 
vestiare staff. 

ORGANIZATION AS EVACUATION HOSPITAL 

When in August, 191 7, we were notified that Base Hospital No. 18 was to act 
as an evacuation hospital, it became apparent that radical changes of system 
were necessary. As additional work it had been decided that during those times 
all dressings should be removed, all wounds inspected and many dressed in the 
Receiving Office, and a few selected patients prepared there for immediate 
operation. Furthermore, the hospital staff was divided into two shifts, so that 
it might be kept running twenty-four hours a day for an indefinite period, and 
the emergency expansion of hospital capacity made greater demands on the 
personnel. The Receiving Office, therefore, as all other departments of the 
hospital, had much more work to do with many less men to do it. Accordingly, 
only minimal records were kept, this doing away with much of the clerical work, 
the disinfestation of verminous patients was given up temporarily except in 
special cases and the careful checking of clothes was not continued. For the re- 
organization necessary, Capt. C. A. Watt, who had worked at a British casualty 
clearing station performing the same functions, was consulted. He made 
suggestions that were carried out in detail and found satisfactory throughout. 
All patients were seen by one medical officer who sent the sick directly to medical 
wards and all wounded, whether walking or on stretchers, to the room formerly 
used for bathing stretcher cases. This room was supplied with materials for sur- 
gical dressings and here all dressings were cut down by orderlies and all wounds 
inspected by members of the surgical staff. The wounds of some patients were 
redressed and they were sent directly to the wards; and those of others were 
merely covered and the patient sent to the operating room, the pre-operative 
ward, or the X-ray department. All cases that had not as yet had anti-tetanus 
serum received it here. These new activities lengthened the time of admission 
for convoys, but there was no need for great speed, for with the new plan there 

46 



RECEIVING OFFIC 



were no large emergency details of men that interrupted other hospital work and 
the Receiving Office was always far ahead of the work in the operating room. 

EVACUATION OF CONVOYS 

Not the least interesting of the Receiving Office problems of organization 
were those attendant upon handling large convoys of patients being transferred 
by train from our hospital to other hospitals further down the line. The names of 
the cases to be transferred were handed in to the Receiving Office by the ward 
surgeons, indicating for each patient whether he was to be evacuated on stretcher 
or sitting, and whether or not X-ray plates had been taken in his case. These 
names were then turned over to the Registrar's Office for the completion of their 
records and the preparation of the nominal transfer list, to the vestiare staff, 
which proceeded to outfit the patients, and to the X-ray department that it 
might prepare its reports and the plates to be sent with the patients to the next 
hospital. The hospital was then divided into two equal parts according to the 
distribution of the patients to be evacuated and a list of the patients in each 
half made out, listing the stretcher cases and sitting cases separately. Each list 
of stretcher cases was given to a sergeant in charge of a stretcher squad, and one 
half of the ambulances available were assigned to each. Before the loading of 
ambulances was begun, some cases were prepared on stretchers and while these 
were being started off, other patients were being prepared. As each patient was 
placed in an ambulance his name was checked on the list by the sergeant and 
when the loading was completed each sergeant returned his list with all names 
checked to the Receiving Office. While the stretcher cases were being sent away, 
the walking cases had been collected from the wards in the Receiving Office 
and from there were put into trucks for transportation to the train, each man 
similarly being checked off the list as he was seated in the truck. In the organiza- 
tion as an evacaution hospital no change was made in this system except that 
instead of the ward surgeons turning in lists of cases for evacuation, the Receiv- 
ing Office staff made up its own list by going to the wards and taking the names 
of those patients marked for evacuation by the operating surgeon at time of 
operation. 

Thus in brief were the possibilities of the "Receiving Office" worked out and 
its responsibilities met. In accomplishing this, the Receiving Officer feels that 
too much credit cannot be given to the non-commissioned officers in charge and 
the men who for longer or shorter periods were attached to the staff. Each one 
was loyal in his service and contributed much to enrich the experience of his asso- 
ciates. By reason of its several duties and central position in the administration 
of the hospital activities, the Receiving Office probably touched intimately 
more sections of the hospital than any other department; and certainly because 

47 



N 



R A 



L 



H 



T 



O" R 



Y 



of the large number of men needed at times to carry out its functions, no other 
department had so many of the personnel of Base Hospital No. i8 outfit asso- 
ciated with it in its labors. It is these larger tasks that have been discussed more 
particularly in this little history, and the Receiving Officer has no hesitation in 
saying that any measure of success the department had in the discharge of these 
duties, is due wholly to the enthusiasm all the men of Base Hospital No. i8 
contributed to any work to be done, and the whole-hearted co-operation obtained 
from everyone at all times. 




SAVENAY 



48 



T^ 



HISTORY OF THE NURSES 

HE nursing staff of Base Hospital No. i8 was organized and mobilized in 

■ Baltimore, where most of us took the oath of allegiance on June 5, 191 7. 
-^ The following day amid very little confusion we began the first lap of our 
journey, arriving in New York that afternoon. 

After a period of three hectic days in which time we were equipped by the 
Red Cross, we were glad to find ourselves on the deck of the old Finland, 
upon whose life-belt boxes we made most of the trip to France. 

Base Hospital No. 18 not being ready for occupancy when we reached France, 
we stayed one memorable month in Savenay, during which time we spent many 
tiresome hours drilling in the hayfield under the boiling sun and the watchful eye 
of our Commanding Officer, Major Heysinger. His attempts to teach us "squads 
right" and "squads left" will not be forgotten by his unwilling pupils, nor, one 
would fancy, by him. 

The Fourth of July was celebrated on that same hayfield and we astonished 
the French civilians by indulging in such infantile pursuits as three-legged races, 
potato and wheelbarrow races. On our return from the field meet we were greeted 
by the population of the village and there was an exchange of felicitations be- 
tween the Mayor and our Commanding Officer. The school children were 
present in a body and sang the "Marseillaise." In the evening the officers and 
nurses went to the City Hall where a banquet was served. Toasts were drunk 
and stories told until time for the fireworks to begin. 

In the calendar of red letter days July 26, 1917, stands out, for it was on this 
date that our troop train pulled into the Bazoilles station where "Marse George 
Walker" stood waiting to conduct us to our hospital, after some forty-eight 
hours of travelling across France. 

Immediately we began opening and equipping a few of our barracks, beginning 
with the ones we expected to use for surgery. Five days later we had the thrill 
of admitting our first patients, some few civil cases, very little different from what 
we had been used to at home. We settled down to caring for cases of this kind, 
with an occasional "blesse" due to the premature explosion of a hand grenade or 
to a stray shot on the practice field. 

49 



GENERAL HISTORY 



In early November we received our first wounded from the lines, the victims 
of that first trench raid, i6th Infantry boys, who had been holding the Toul 
sector. 

It was in this same month that the nursing staft' met with its first great 
sorrow in the death of Miss Miriam Knowles. By a strange coincidence, it was 
on the same date of the following year that we lost another member of our group, 
Miss Jeannette Bellman, who had been attached to us some months previously. 
Both our nurses were buried with full military honors, the whole Unit attending. 

The winter was an exceedingly busy one for the nurses since there were ad- 
mitted such a great number of pneumonia cases, both lobar and bronchial, 
besides a large quota of so-called children's diseases. Scarlet, mumps and diph- 
theria were with us constantly. 

It was in the winter also that we first began getting large convoys, sometimes 
medical, sometimes wounded from the evacuation hospitals close to the lines. 
In March came a convoy of some two hundred and fifty badly gassed boys from 
the Rainbow Division, the largest number of gassed patients which we have ever 
received at one time. They required much care but the results were good. 

From the Chateau-Thierry push in June came a convoy of Marines and 
Yankee Division men, more seriously wounded than any we had at that time 
seen. Our hospital was full. to capacity, which was then about eight hundred. 
After a very busy period, the work slacked up again, during which time we 
evacuated all cases which could travel and enlarged in preparation for the ex- 
pected drive in the Lorraine sector. 

During this lull, the engineers completed the new barracks and on August 
17, 1918, the nurses with all their goods and chattels took possession. 

Our extensive preparations for the drive were found somewhat unnecessary, 
for the troops met with such slight opposition in their advance on the St. Mihiel 
salient that we received very few casualties. However, we had need for all our re- 
sources during the fighting on the Verdun sector and in the Argonne Forest, for we 
had been made temporarily an evacuation hospital and for a period of some 
weeks we were handling large incoming and outgoing convoys constantly. Our 
capacity was then about eleven hundred beds, counting the space in some tents 
which had been erected for overflow. 

This was undoubtedly the busiest time in the history of our hospital, and we 
had the officer and nurSing staff divided into day and night squads in order that 
no time might be lost, and that the cases might get prompt surgical care on ad- 
mission. 

Since the signing of the armistice there has been very little real work to do, 
so our time has been unprofitably spent in circulating rumors. The most per- 
sistent and the most pleasing of these is that we shall all be home early in 1919. 

50 



HISTORY 



O F 



THE 



NURSES 



When we left Baltimore our staff numbered some sixty-five nurses and one 
dietitian. The latter and nine of our nurses have been returned home by the 
Disability Board, and twelve of the original Unit have been given transfer to 
other organizations. We have had quite a number of nurses attached from time to 
time, most of whom were detached after a short stay. At present there are fifty- 
three in our Unit. 

We have had quite a number of visitors during the year, many of whom were 
old friends of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Among them were the Princess 
d'Hennin, the Bishop of Erie, Dr. Herbert Adams Gibbons, Miss Elsie DeWolfe, 
Mrs. Mary Roberts Rinehart, Dr. Hugh Birckhead, Mr. Frank Kent, and Dr. 
Woods Hutchinson. Our most frequent visitors are General Finney, General 
Thayer, Colonel Young, Colonel Boggs and Colonel Fisher. 




THE TRIP UP TO BA70TLLES 



51 



T 



MEDICAL STUDENTS' COURSE 



HE training of the fourth year medical students who came over with 
the Johns Hopkins Unit may be described briefly under two headings: 
I. Clinical work on the wards of the hospital, and in the operating 
room and laboratory. 



2. Lecture courses covering in the main: 

a. The practice of general medicine and surgery. 

b. The organization and administration of the Medical Corps of the 
Army. 

c. The special problems pertaining to troop sanitation in and out of 
the line, evacuation of wounded, and, in general, the duties of battalion 
medical officers. 

1. When the hospital was first opened for the reception of patients, one or 
more students were assigned to each ward. There was some uncertainty at first 
as to just what their duties would be ; it was a question in the minds of some, par- 
ticularly those of the old army, as to the advisability of letting a private (for such 
the students were) attempt to do any part of the work formerly done in the 
army hospitals by officers. In a comparatively short time, however, this question 
was settled, and under the general direction of Dr. Finney and Dr. Boggs, and 
under the direct supervision of the hospital staff, the students took up their 
work on the various medical and surgical wards. 

As to the exact nature of this work, it may best be described by saying that 
the students served as junior internes in the hospital, working under the super- 
vision of the ward surgeons. In the operating room they served as anesthetists 
and assistants. In the laboratory they served as assistants. The routine labora- 
tory examintions of the hospital were done here by the students under the direc- 
tion of Dr. Walter Baetjer. The staff of the hospital made every effort to give 
the students the training they considered essential for medical officers. Ward 
rounds were given by the chiefs of the various services, and included cases from 
the general surgical wards, orthopedic wards, genito-urinary wards, infectious 
and general medical wards, and wards caring for eye, ear, nose and throat cases. 

2. a. In the lecture course the subjects were treated according to a definite 
schedule, the lecturers being members of the permanent staff. 

52 



MEDICAL STUDENTS' COURSE 



Surgical 
Orthopedic — Dr. Baer and Dr. Graves 
General and Abdominal — Dr. Stone. 
Central Nervous System — Dr. Heuer. 
Vascular System — Dr. Bernheim. 
Gynecology — Dr. Wharton and Dr. Shaw. 
Ear, Nose and Throat — Dr. Slack. 
Eye — Dr. Whitham. 
X-ray — Dr. Waters. 

Medical Administration in the Army — Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Edwards, M.C. 
Dental — Dr. Brum. 

Medical 
General Medicine — Dr. Boggs and Dr. Guthrie. 
Chest Diagnosis — Dr. Sydenstricker. 
Skin Diseases — Dr. Guthrie. 
Contagious Diseases — Dr. Happ. 
Diseases of Children — Dr. Happ. 

b. and c. These subjects were presented in a course at the Army Sanitary 
School at Langres, France, and included lectures and demonstrations given by the 
heads of many of the clinical and administrative departments of the Army. 
The course was a most comprehensive one, and to Lieut. -Col. George M. Edwards, 
M.C, v/ho was at that time Commanding Officer of Base Hospital No. i8, and 
who made this training possible for the students, and to Col. Baily Ashford, M.C, 
Commandant of the School, a vote of thanks is due. 

The students were graduated in April, 1918, the fact being announced by a 
cable from Dean Whitridge Williams to Dr. J. M. T. Finney. The following 
month, after the course at Langres, all were commissioned as first lieutenants in 
the Medical Corps and sent to a casual officers' depot at Blois, France. From 
this depot they were sent out into their new work. 

In conclusion it is the desire of the writers to voice for the Base Hospital No. 
18 Section of the 1918 Class of Johns Hopkins Medical School a sincere apprecia- 
tion for the loyalty of the entire staff of the hospital to our group. Were we to 
mention the names of those to whom we are grateful, it would result in an 
enumeration of the names of all the officers who came to France with the Unit. 
They believed in the plan under which we came to France; through their influ- 
ence it was put upon a practical working basis; and through their efforts and 
influence, its conclusion, the training and commissioning of thirty members of 
the class in April, 1918, was realized. 

53 



WELFARE WORK 



THE Y.M.C.A. 

THE story of the Y.M.C.A. of Base Hospital No. i8 begins with the 
estabHshment of a canteen by Capt. Bertram M. Bernheim, then the De- 
tachment Commander. In the month of October, 1917, Dr. W. C. Coleman 
became General Secretary. The canteen quarters were enlarged, a writing room 
was established, canteen service increased, and some facilities for entertainment 
provided. Mr. E. C. Carter, General Y.M.C.A. Secretary of the A.E.F., visited 
the hospital and made arrangements for the erection of a permanent building. 
An agreement was made with the American Red Cross whereby they were to pay 
the expenses of the erection of the building and the operating of the building was 
to be undertaken by the Y.M.C.A. This arrangement became permanent. 
Dr. Coleman, having obtained the material and secured the co-operation of the 
loist Engineers, the building was formally opened late in December, 1917. 

Dr. Coleman was an ordained minister, and at the request of Major Finney 
(now Brigadier-General) became Chaplain of Base Hospital No. 18. Dr. Coleman 
continued as Y.M.C.A. Secretary and Chaplain until June i, 1918, when he was 
relieved by Ray E. Hunt as Secretary. Dr. Coleman having been transferred to 
another field of labor, on invitation of Lieut. -Col. George M. Edwards, M.C., 
Mr. Hunt succeeded Dr. Coleman as Chaplain. Mr. Hunt continued in this 
relationship until the departure of Base Hospital No. 18 from France. Other 
associate secretaries who have served with credit for a considerable period of 
time are Dr. Samuel Polk, Dr. H. H. Harmon, Lewis A. Gilbert, Philip E. Ward, 
and Dean S. Fansler. Other secretaries have served for a shorter period of time. 

The activities of the Association may be separated into the following groups: 
Entertainment, Athletics, Educational, Canteen, and Religious. 

After the opening of the permanent building, it was the intention of the 
General Secretary to have some sort of entertainment or public meeting each 
evening of the week. During the days when the hospital was filled with patients, 
a matinee would be held for patients in the afternoon or early evening with a 
program for the hospital personnel at night. The American Red Cross equipped 

55 



NERAL HISTORY 



the building with an excellent motion picture machine. Film programs were 
obtained from the Red Cross Service in Paris on Wednesday and returned the 
following Sunday morning. This made the cinema available for use during four 
days of the week. Members of the Overseas Theatre League under the auspices 
of the Y.M.C.A. frequently visited the building. An excellent stage had been 
constructed, making the presentation of short plays and vaudeville very easy. 
Most prominent among our entertainers were Elsie Janis, two appearances, the 
Craig Players in "Baby Mine," and the "Jeanne d'Arc Pageant," and the Con- 
valescent Minstrels in three performances. Many other concert parties deserve 
mention, if space would permit. Several local talent entertainments, usually 
under the direction of Major Lucien B. Brun, D.C., and Sergeant Harold Tuthill, 
were presented. 

The Association encouraged athletic sports. An athletic field adjoining the 
hospital ground was leased for these activities. On July 4, igi8, an athletic carni- 
val was staged in which other units composing the hospital center competed. 
The Association provided baseball equipment, football, basket-ball, and tennis 
equipment to the extent of its ability. 

The educational classes of the Association were not largely attended. Courses 
in beginning and advanced French were available. Five classes in French were 
organized. Classes in beginning and advanced mathematics were offered under 
the direction of Mr. Philip E. Ward. 

The canteen was an important activity of the Y.M.C.A. At the request of 
the local quartermaster, and in order to relieve congestion in his sales depart- 
ment, all articles sold by the local quartermaster were placed on sale in the 
Association building. Supplies from the Y.M.C.A. warehouse were available and 
a very good canteen stock was maintained. A wet canteen where soft drinks and 
sandwiches could be secured was maintained for the greater part of the time. In 
addition to the selling activities of the canteen, a bank department was main- 
tained for the cashing of checks and money orders, and the forwarding of money 
to America. A total of the amount of money thus handled is not available, but 
frequently was more than five thousand francs per day. A library of six hundred 
volumes was in constant circulation. A great amount of writing material was 
distributed gratuitously. 

The Association of Base Hospital No. 18 was noted for its religious activity. 
It had the distinction of being the only building in the Neufchateau area in which 
a morning and evening religious service were conducted every Sunday. Father 
Thomas A. Dinan, Catholic Chaplain, very frequently used the building for 
religious purposes. Episcopal communion services were conducted on the first 
Sunday of each month. Interdenominational communion services were con- 
ducted on the third Sunday of each month. Public preaching services, at which 

56 



WELFARE WORK 



the attendance was voluntary, were held at 10.30 a.m. and 7.30 p.m. each vSunday. 
In addition to the reUgious ministrations by the chaplains in the wards, many 
personal conferences were held with members of the hospital personnel. Many 
renewals of religious vows were made, and several persons were baptized on con- 
fession of faith. 

The Association was regarded by religious leaders as being exceptionally well 
balanced in its program and successful in the accomplishment of its purposes. It 
always enjoyed the confidence and the support of the commanding officers of 
Base Hospital No. 18. 

CATHOLIC ACTIVITIES 

Following the invitation of the Commanding Officer, I will run through 
briefly the salient features of my work among the patients and personnel of Base 
Hospital No. 18. 

My connection with Base 18 as Catholic chaplain dates from January 31, 1918, 
when I arrived here as Red Cross chaplain. For seven months prior to that date 
I had been doing ministry at Paris in the congested workingmen's district, and 
for several years previous to my coming to France I had done priestly work in 
Rome and other parts of Italy. It was, in consequence, with some slight mis- 
givings that I followed the prospect of beginning my American ministry — not 
indeed in America, but in France, for though I am an American myself I had never 
yet addressed an English-speaking audience, till I found myself in Bazoilles-sur- 
Meuse among the American soldiers. 

My welcome at Base 18 was most hearty. The first to greet me was Capt. 
William Prescott Wolcott, of the American Red Cross, who at once set about 
making me acquainted with the various officers and nurses of the Johns Hop- 
kins Unit. The dehcate kindness of Captain Wolcott, multiplied many times 
since that day, shall never be forgotten, nor will I ever forget the warm welcome 
tendered me by Captain Stone, the adjutant. His friendly grasp and cheery words 
made me feel right at home. Then began my real work among the patients and 
personnel of the hospital; and while speaking of the personnel there is one 
feature to which I want to draw particular attention, and it is a feature of which 
I have twice spoken publicly, namely, that the Protestant boys of the Unit seemed 
more attentive and kind to me than a goodly number of my own Catholic boys. 
It was this friendly spirit on their part which did more than anything else to put 
me perfectly at my ease from the outset. What I say of these boys I can say with 
equal justice of all the officers of Base 18. I always felt that I had a personal 
friend in each of them. More than once I was much embarrassed by the prompt 
personal attention given to some request in connection with my ministry. One 
instance stands out prominently when Captain Lyman quit his ward despite my 

57 



GENERAL HISTORY 



protestations to arrange once for all a certain prerogative of the company office. 
Such hearty co-operation and sincere manifestations of good-will enabled me to 
work harmoniously among the men, so that my visits to the wards every day 
were among the most pleasant occurrences of my life. I grew to know each 
individual patient, for Base i8 was then in reality a base and not merely in name, 
though later war needs necessitated its being used as an evacuation hospital. 
I was a member in one big family — officers, nurses, personnel and patients formed 
but one big whole. I learned to admire the unstinted devotedness of officers and 
nurses to their patients and this was notably brought out in the trying rush 
occasioned in all the hospitals in the heavy drives at the front. The crowds of 
wounded and sick brought into Base i8 were systematically handled in able, 
logical order, for Base i8 was equal to the task, both as a real base hospital and 
as an evacuation hospital. 

My own personal work called for regular visits to the wards, where I was 
warmly received by all the patients, Catholics and Protestants alike; my heart, 
as every true priestly heart, was large enough to love them all. Many of the Prot- 
estant boys said : "I'm not a Catholic myself. Father, but I'm always glad to have 
you come around." And what shall I say of my intimate ministry among my 
Catholic boys? Nothing could have been more consoling. There were many days 
when I spent practically consecutive hours hearing confessions in the wards, for 
the percentage of Catholics was always very high among my sick, and then I 
would have to be up bright and early in the morning to bring them holy com- 
munion. Those were decidedly happy days for me. My first American ministry 
has been all that could be desired and though officially attached to Base i8 for 
a good period, I could extend my priestly efforts to Base ii6; and when their own 
priest cam^e, I had assigned to me Base 42 and Base 46. Base 42 has recently 
passed from my care to that of Father Nuwer, but Base 46 still shares my interest 
with Base 18. Within recent date from being a Red Cross chaplain I have become 
a regular Army chaplain, but my relations to Base 18 have in nowise changed. 
It will be a pleasurable recollection for me to look back on the days spent at 
Base 18 in the company of such staunch, friendly officers and nurses and equally 
staunch, friendly enlisted men. I know they have all won my unlimited afTection 
and I feel that I have won theirs. May God's blessing attend them all wherever 
they may be. 

Father Dinan. 

american red cross activities, u.s. base hospital no. 1 8 

The first Red Cross Hospital representative at Base Hospital No. i8 was 
Dr. Meil, who was only able to remain a few months owing to family illness at 
home. He was succeeded by W. P. Wolcott, who has remained with the Unit 

58 



WELFARE WORK 



up to the present time. The duty of the representative is to see that the hospital 
is furnished with all the Red Cross supplies, necessities, comforts and so forth, 
and generally to look after the needs and welfare of patients. Under him was, 
first. Miss Gailor for about six months, and then Miss Wheeler. These ladies 
were "searchers" for the Red Cross, whose duties are to hunt up, among the 
wounded and the sick, men who have been reported missing, or for whom in- 
quiries have been made from their families; to write letters for. the patients who 
are not able to write themselves; to distribute tobacco. Red Cross bags, and 
many other comforts. 

The Red Cross erected and furnished the large recreation hut in which the 
Y.M.C.A. conducts, with the co-operation of the Red Cross representative, 
social activities for patients and enlisted personnel of the hospital ; it also furnished 
the moving pictures, which have eight performances during the week. It has 
erected and furnished a club for the nurses where the Unit holds its dances, 
also a small building for the officers who are patients, where they now have 
their meals served, instead of as formerly on the ward, and also has put up four 
roofed piazzas in conjunction with the contagious ward, where patients suffering 
from contagious diseases are able to get out of doors. 

The Red Cross feels that, even greater than the good it has done by giving 
away tons of goods, is what it has done for the morale and mental state of the 
sick and wounded; and it has been a help and an inspiration to its workers always 
to receive the co-operation and welcome of Base Hospital No. i8. 



59 



SPORTS 



4LL work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," even in the Army. It 
/-\ is doubtful whether any Army organization was ever so completely 
-*- -*■ occupied that its men could not get out and play some of the time. As 
a rule, in the Army, one is apt to run to extremes; in times of stress one is pushed 
almost to the breaking point, while in tim.es of ease there is scarcely enough 
work to keep a fellow out of mischief. It is in such slack times as these that out- 
of-door sport come to the rescue and save one from suicide or going A.W.O.L. 

Base Hospital No. i8 started to enjoy itself as soon as it reached France. 
At Savenay, in June and July, 191 7, when we had no patients and were only 
a military outfit with nothing to do but turn out the guard and turn in the morn- 
ing reports, we celebrated the Fourth of July by a field day, in which Hank Shaw 
and Miss Chick won the handicap mixed wheelbarrow race, while a couple of 
French high school boys ran away from our fastest sprinters in the dashes. The 
French children were immensely amused at some of our games that day, notably 
the potato race, the egg race, and the sack race. On that date, moreover, we 
played what was probably one of the first baseball games among the American 
forces in France. 

From July till September, 1917, there was very little for the sporting editions 
of Base 18, because those of us who were down in St. Nazaire were too few, 
while those up at Bazoilles-sur-Meuse were too busy getting established in our 
new home. There never was a time, however, when we couldn't get up a game 
of "stud," or roll the bones — African golf. 

September, 1917, marked the date of the first real sporting event for us in 
France. It seems that a short time before this, "Heinie" Cave, the pride of 
Paducah, had been successful in interesting a few friends of his from the Roose- 
velt Hospital, of New York City, in the war and had brought them over to 
France and settled in Chaumont, about thirty miles from Bazoilles. Having 
hired a few majors and one colonel to work for him, the first thing he did was 
to challenge the officers of the Hopkins Unit to a baseball game, as a fitting 
ceremony attending the establishment of his hospital in France. While G.H.Q. 
S.O.S. may not have ranked as a classic, the contest which resulted, nevertheless, 
Base 18 carried off whatever honors there were, and all that Heinie Cave and 
his followers got was a good dinner party and a dance that night. Base 18 also 
established its reputation that day, and was henceforth known as "Fighting 18 
of Death Valley." In this game Dr. Finney played first base, George Heuer 

61 



GENERAL HISTORY 



second, Evelyth Bridgeman third, Buck Waters short stop, Cy Guthrie, Walter 
Baetjer and Bernie played in the outfield, with Bennie Kline and Hank Shaw 
as the battery. For valor in the field. Dr. Finney was promoted to the rank of 
brigadier-general, Ev. Bridgeman was put in charge of a convalescent camp, 
George Heuer was ordered to an evacuation hospital and Buck Waters was 
sent home. While some of these orders required months to go through G.H.Q., 
this was the last game in which these officers took part. This was one of the 
first baseball games played at Bazoilles in 1917. 

Winter came on rather abruptly and fall sports were cut short. Rugby foot- 
ball was not even attempted, and except for a game or two of soccer played by 
our enlisted men among themselves, long walks became the order of the day. The 
winter was very severe, with days of snow and zero weather. This we took ad- 
vantage of, and enjoyed ourselves by coasting on home-made bobsleds down 
the Neufchateau hill, with its double curve. Harry Slack and Ev. Bridgeman 
had mild cases of shellshock after colliding with a tree on one of these parties — 
otherwise there were very few casualties to mar the pleasure. 

While the winter was still in full sway and frost-bitten toes and fingers were 
still the universal badge of service, preparations were under way for what would 
probably have been the greatest society event in the A.E.F. In the Vosges, wild 
boar hunting is the dernier mot in sports, indulged In only by the elite. As a 
matter of fact, it is the common herd who do the real hunting, while the quality 
folk get the credit and also the boar. The first essential to a good boar hunt is a 
pack of well-trained boar hounds. Now a boar hound is not a distinct entity; 
just as there are various species of wild boar, so there must be corresponding 
types of boar hounds. In fact, any hound dog that will catch a wild boar or 
show interest in the case is capable, under proper coaching, of developing into 
an excellent boar hound. So the first thing to do was to get a well-trained pack — 
then for the chase. 

Cy Guthrie was master of the boar hounds. As soon as it became noised 
abroad that a pack was to be assembled and trained, applicants began to appear. 
Among them were "Charlie," the big Belgian police dog owned by the Command- 
ing Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Edwards; "Baz," the blue chow, from the kennels 
of Major Baer; "Vanda" and her eleven pups, owned by Mr. Wolcott of the Red 
Cross; "pauvre Zazza" with her six children, blooded French bulls contributed for 
the event by "Boo" Mason. Because Mason's dogs looked so much like little pigs, 
however, they were ruled out of the boar pack by the Committee on Qualifications. 

Canines of every creed and breed were in the pack; big black, bobtailed, 
woolly ones like Boris, formerly a French cow-dog; dogs that believed in chasing 
rocks, like Dick, the "cur de Lyon"; little spotted, fuzzy dogs, like Aix, that 
lived on beetles; Taps, Jacques, Ninette, Rintintin, and finally old Ludendorfif, 

62 



OUTLINE OF SPOR 



a captured dachshund, that required considerable persuasion to enable him to 
see the virtue in chasing the wild wiener in vivo. Altogether a pack of twenty- 
five or thirty dogs were on the register. It was really an open question whether 
Base Hospital No. i8 could not properly be called the Hopkins Kennels. 

Then suddenly we realized that we were in the Army. The pack had been 
well trained; Cy Guthrie was about to be mentioned in the orders of the day for 
his meritorious conduct. But the pack was not all in uniform, and furthermore, 
the Q.M., Lieutenant Clark, raised the point that there was "nothing in the regu- 
lations" that would authorize a boar hunt. Then several of the members of the 
pack began to show signs of weakening. Boris, the proud leader, came under the 
influence of the Hun hound, Ludendorff, and both went A.W.O.L. Aix disap- 
peared mysteriously and Baz committed suicide in Neufchateau. As a disci- 
plinary measure, in accordance with orders from the "Group Center," most of the 
rest were either drowned, shot or chloroformed. Thus the vision we had enter- 
tained vanished, and the big boar hunt with Miss Baker as mistress of the chase 
and Bernie riding Napoleon at the head of the pack of baying hounds, was never 
to be. Base Hospital i8 therefore had to look elsewhere for amusement. 

Since we couldn't raise dogs, we raised wild animals. As a beginning, the 
boys in the Receiving Office adopted Oscar, a young wild boar. Then Miss 
Baker charmed the nurses by attempting to civilize a goat; but when Dr. Wharton 
presented himself one day with a wild porcupine named Genevieve, and a field 
mouse, and Miss Anne Rogers came home with a young eagle, the peace of the 
menagerie was so disturbed that it also was disbanded. 

During the cold winter evenings, music appealed to some of us. We had no 
piano, but by scouting around managed to gather some instruments in Nancy. 
Buck Waters, as wary as ever, was well provided — about the only military 
equipment of any sort he possessed was his banjo. So we organized the "Buzzards' 
Band," the original members of which were Benny Kline and Bernie, mandolins, 
Buck Waters and Lloyd Whitham, banjos, and Lawrence Wharton, guitar. 
Later the band was augmented by the addition of Walter Baetjer playing the 
"sweet potato" and cymbals, Bruno playing the piccolo and doing Nubian 
dances, and Hank Shaw riding the mouth organ. We played for some of our 
dances on Saturday evenings and thought we were good. The troubadours, 
however, led an adventurous life, and it must be admitted music was not always 
a safe avocation at Fighting i8. 

Taken as a whole, the picture of the sports during the winter of 1917-18 at 
Bazoilles was rather cubist in conception and iconoclastic in perpetration. 

The year 1918 was full of both work and play. Early in the spring, during 
moments of leisure, the boys commenced to toss the baseballs around. During 
the months when the American forces were most busily engaged, July, August, 

63 



GENERAL HISTORY 



September and October, it was out of the question to try to play ball. But 
early in the summer and after the armistice was signed, Base i8 became a family 
of out-of-door sports. 

The enlisted men had four baseball teams, the regular first team, the stu- 
dents' team, the Unit A team and the Goldfishes. The officers also had three 
teams, the hospital team, the lieutenants' team and the captains' team. In addi- 
tion to numerous games played between these teams in our own unit, a large 
number were played with visiting teams. 

By the summer of 1918, Bazoilles had developed into a large hospital center, 
with seven hospital units in the valley, and others in the near vicinity. In 
addition, detachments of engineers and line organizations were stationed near 
us. Out of all these outfits, a baseball league of enlisted men's teams was organized, 
and a regular schedule of games was played. In this association, our team fought 
its way to the top. On the Fourth of July, we played with Evacuation Hospital 6 
the game which was to decide the league championship. Unfortunately, we 
lost not only the game and championship, but also beaucoup revenue — so 
much so that Base 18 was in a state of bankruptcy for weeks to come. 

The officers' team was somewhat more fortunate financially. There was no 
real fixed schedule; we challenged anybody that came along and played them, 
providing that it didn't rain. Our chief rival was Base Hospital 116, situated 
across the Meuse River from us. We won most of our games, and closed the 
season in September by beating Base 116 soundly, allowing them but one hit. 
The lineup of the team was: Watt, ib.; Slack, Evans, 2b.; Porter, 3b.; Colston, 
ss.; Guthrie, Baetjer, Happ, Du Bray, King, fielders; Wharton, Kline, Shaw, 
Colston, batteries. 

But the gala events of the baseball season were the big game with the Roose- 
velt Hospital at Chaumont, and the Captain-Lieutenants game at Bazoilles. 
We had already defeated Heinie Cave and Co. twice, both times at Bazoilles. 
This time we attacked them in their own lines. Heinie Cave was ready to the 
nth degree. Sergeant-majors had been commissioned, casual X-ray men 
drafted, and for three weeks before the game Captain Cave had had his braves 
doing double time on the diamond — to beat us. Before the game we marched to 
the field at the head of a parade one-half of a mile long, brass bands, the entire 
personnel of the Roosevelt Hospital in formation, wild animals from the Roose- 
velt menagerie, a camel from South Africa, a llama from South America, Uncle 
Tom's Cabin on wheels, a darky with a pack of blood hounds on leash, the 
Oriental snake charmer — they were all there — and they beat us. After the game 
our consolation was a dinner and dance. 

The climax of the season for the officers was the game between the Captains 
and Lieutenants. The only superiority the lieutenants had ever granted the 

64 



OUTLINE OF SPORT 



captains was their larger salary, and in this game they proceeded to extract 
that. At the outset it seemed as if there would be no game at all. Du Bray passed 
nine lieutenants in the first inning, while Benny Kline, "The Epernay Kid," 
fresh from the caves of Moet and Chandon, held the higher officers to a safe 
figure. Then Captain Bernheim, clad in his ptotic pantaloons, entered the box, 
and for eleven innings the game swayed to and fro, being tied 13 all in the ninth 
inning. Finally, in the thirteenth inning, the lieutenants pushed across the run 
that made them wealthy and cheered the hearts of the fair nurses admiring them. 
It is estimated that Captain Weller, the versatile quartermaster, playing center 
field, muffed enough items without memorandum and receipt to make him poor 
for life. After the game festivities ran into the early hours, the captains paying 
the bill. What happened the next day is duly recorded in the official records of 
the A.E.F. It was another hard day for the captains. 
The lineup of the teams was as follows: 

Captains — Du Bray, Bernheim, p. ; Baetjer, c. ; Watt, ib. ; Evans, 2b. ; Colston, 
ss.; Bernheim, DuBray, 3b.; Weller, Singer, Guthrie, field. 

Lieutenants — Kline, p.; Shaw, c; Happ, ib.; Slack, 2b;. Wharton, ss.; 
King, 3b.; Lankford, Brun, Whitham, field. 

The football season of 1918 was short and snappy — three weeks' practice, 
two games without our goal line being crossed. We defeated the X-ray School 
on November i6th, 20-0, and then on Thanksgiving Day took one last punch at 
our rival. Base Hospital 116, with the score 6-0. Both games were well played, 
the Thanksgiving game being fought with intercollegiate bitterness. The line- 
up of the football team was: Jakobi, center; Garcia, left guard; Woodard, left 
tackle; Borthwick, left end; Tindall, right guard (captain) ; Shewell, right tackle; 
Webber, right end; Moore, quarterback; Mellor, Griffith, fullbacks; Hess, Kelly, 
right halfbacks; McCouch, Harrison, left halfbacks. 

Substitutes: Tracy, DeWoody, Argabright, Nixon, Owens, Holmes. Coach: 
Harold F. Tuthill. Manager: Captain Wharton. 

Lieutenant Morgan and Captain Michael assisted in the coaching and played 
part of the Thanksgiving game. 

The successful close of the football season of IQ18 was celebrated by a dinner 
for the officers given by the men on Saturday night of Thanksgiving week. The 
dinner marked the last formal feast of Base 18 in France. We had worked hard 
for a year and a half, had established the first hospitals of the A.E.F. , both at 
base ports and in the advance zones, had served the troops from Ypres down to 
Belfort, and at the last football dinner, with the music of the trumpets of the 
78th Field Artillery Band, sang with real meaning, "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All 
Here." The American soldier always carries his baseball and football suit with 
him, and as he plays, so he fights — to win. 

65 



HISTORY OF ENLISTED MEN 



"W^ ^ TELL, Captain Bridgman, you can sign me up for the big show." 
V/ V/ Thus shouted our future Private Cassidy of the Amex. The scene was 
the lobby of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, and Captain 
Bridgman was telling a large crowd of Baltimore boys the disadvantages of 
joining the then Hopkins Unit — volunteers and among the first to do a bit 
against the Hun. The boys were all eager and anticipating just such a trip and 
there was little or no trouble in filling our quota. After taking the oath, half a 
dozen or more assemblies were necessary to talk over matters and get the several 
inoculations. The proposition of going to war was thoroughly thrashed out among 
the fellows and we were earnestly advised to take only pajamas, a tooth brush, 
and the check book. The baseball outfits, tennis outfits, libraries, and other 
useful comforts and sports were promised to be brought along by the Unit and 
placed at our permanent location for the opportunity and advantage of the 
boys during their leisure hours. 

Accordingly, all set, on June 6, IQ17, at about 11.30 p.m., we departed from 
Camden Station over the B. & O., loaded with suit-cases and other luggage for 
the trip. The last opportunity for real American bonbons was taken advantage 
of, and they were passed around freely in the coaches until our arrival at Jersey. 
There was little sleep gotten on the journey. Tasty sandwiches were served in 
the early morning at the station and our hunger fully satisfied. After this hasty 
sort of breakfast we were hustled in the immigrant room on the pier and there 
proved an object of much curiosity. We were a hundred and thirty some in 
number. Passersby declared us anything from army deserters to strike breakers 
— we were comfortably lolling around on our baggage with now and then a 
merry chance or the slap of a card passing away the time. At mid-day we crossed 
the river and were installed in "Mills Hotel." Here we passed some pleasant 
days of anticipating and saw much of Greater New York. 

Soon our turn came for boarding a transport and accordingly we proceeded 
to the pier and the Thomas R. Fatton conveyed us to the transport Finland, lying 
in the upper harbor. The first night aboard the Finland was quite a jolly one — 
making ourselves comfortable and learning to hold our feet on the water. We 
were just as anxious to make the acquaintance of the crew as the crew was to 

66 



HISTORY OF ENLISTED MEN 



share our friendship. Mandohns and guitars were brought out and practically 
every member of the Unit and crew who were at leisure gathered on the ropes 
about the forward mast, and getting comfortable, the fun began. School ditties 
and popular airs were welcomed by all. The roundness of the evening was 
finally accomplished by may deep sea tales delightfully told by members of the 
crew. Bonbons donated by the nurses were thoroughly enjoyed. The few days 
following and before the anchor was raised for the voyage to Europe, the boys 
were busying themselves in making their quarters comfortable — the second deck 
in the forward hold where tiers of bunks had been arranged one over the other. 
During these days of inactivity many rumors were circulated and the boys' 
spirits kept in a high tone of anticipation looking forward to the deep blue sea. 

Associated on the Finland, there was also part of the i8th Infantry, and on 
the trip over the time was pleasantly passed by boxing matches and interesting 
tales put forth by the doughboys. A part of each day was given over to military 
instruction and an hour's pace of promenade deck kept each member in good 
physical shape. 

After we arrived in France the troops were disembarked and Base i8 pro- 
ceeded to Savenay. A baggage detail was chosen, and some twenty or thirty 
were left behind to look after the baggage of the Unit. The boys arrived at 
Savenay just in time to make themselves acquainted with the townspeople and 
participate in the celebration for the Fourth of July. Athletic games, speeches 
and fireworks at night marked our first celebration in La Belle France. 

Practically the whole time for the immediate present was taken up with 
military instruction and discipline. Prolonged military drills were held each 
morning and afternoon under the supervision of our first sergeant, who from the 
date of his appointment had easily won the respect and admiration of each mem- 
ber of the organization and who continued to hold the good will of all throughout 
our entire stay in France. Guard duty and "K.P'ing" was about the only worry 
of the boys during their month's stay at Savenay. We were comfortably fitted 
up in an old schoolhouse with from eight to sixteen in a room. The evenings 
were never minus a bit of jest or good humor and in this way we all became good 
friends. Many of the boys took advantage of the the passes that were issued and 
saw quite a bit of the beautiful surrounding country, some going as far as Nantes, 
about thirty miles up the Loire River valley. Being practically the first American 
soldiers in this neighborhood, in almost every village visited, our welcome was ex- 
tremely courteous. Most of the time it was a question of dodging invitations of 
individual hospitality and seats at the dinner table. 

A month of this life at Savenay and orders came for our removal to what was 
to be our permanent location, Bazoilles. All packed, we proceeded to the station 
and six men were assigned to each compartment of a third-class French passenger 

67 



GENERAL HISTORY 



coach. Our rations for the trip consisted of the favorite "bully beef," canned 
jam and hard tack. The trip across France under such conditions was extremely 
delightful and the boys took every advantage of the scenery. At every town 
where the train stopped, the commissary in the station was immediately mobbed 
and the boys toted off all they could find that was edible and all the post card 
views of the surrounding country. Quite often at the stops there were pretty 
French girls who donated coffee, tea or chocolate and other light refreshments. 
Being the first American soldiers to traverse this territory our welcome every- 
where was a most cordial one and the trip proved to be very profitable from the 
standpoint of acquiring a good French vocabulary. 

The twenty men who had preceded the main body in order to make ready 
the quarters, were at the station to greet us when the train pulled in. With three 
hurrahs the train was emptied and the army greetings took place. Marching up 
through the town to the hospital was more or less of a review for the townspeople. 
Here again the reception was all that .was expected. We soon made ourselves at 
home, both in the quarters and with the French soldiers who were assigned about 
the town. One of the first things in the mind of all was to take advantage of our 
leisure time and learn something of the interesting surrounding country. Dom- 
remy, the birthplace of Jeanne d'Arc, was the most favored, and being within 
nice walking distance of the hospital, there was always a party on the road 
working up an appetite for those famous beans. Athletics were mildly under way, 
and they occupied considerable effort from the stars. At the very beginning the 
townspeople practically held open house for the boys of Base i8, and, of course, 
wherever there was a piano so were some of the boys. 

The winter of 1917-18 found us well settled down and no matter how inclem- 
ent the weather, we were always comfortable in our barracks, the only exception 
being that after a walk through the snow and in laying our shoes by the side of 
our bunks, the next morning they were generally frozen to the floor and re- 
quired five minutes' hard work to make them usable for reveille. Big bobsleds 
were made and a snow hill running through the town was always kept in good 
repair and was always enjoyed to the limit by all who cared for this sport. 
Another pleasing pastime was to go over the hill and watch the bombs explode 
which were dropped by the boche airmen in the locality. 

The big Y.M.C.A. hut was ready for occupation during the Christmas 
holidays. A big dance with plenty of music and other entertainments marked 
our Christmas, 191 7. On New Year's Day the hut was formally opened by the 
secretary, Mr. Coleman, and it was always a place where you could find most any 
sort of amusement. The most popular entertainer who visited the hut was our 
dear old friend, Elsie Janis. She carried such a big hit with the boys of 18 that 
they one and all declare they shall never miss one of her performances in the 

68 



HISTORY OF ENLISTED MEN 



States. In the early summer of 1918, the secretaryship changed hands and Mr. 
Hunt, the new secretary, from the very beginning, enjoyed a high degree of 
popularity among the boys. Mr. Hunt continued to act as secretary until Base 
i8's departure from France. 

With the summer fairly under way, the sporting issue took new life. Several 
tennis courts were built and many games were played — night only putting a stop 
to the pleasure. Baseball remained king and those who lived in our famous 
"Death Valley" were responsible for the keen competition between the several 
teams of the hospital. A word here might be said in the interest of "Death 
Valley." Mayor Ashley headed this organization and it was soon found neces- 
sary to engage the services of a skilled sleuth; Detective Murk Smyth was 
brought into play and his shrewdness was soon made manifest in unearthing 
some of the plots and scandals that were current at that time. The brilliantly 
edited "Death Valley News" was the result of this organization. Bev Dunning 
was responsible for this publication and it is due to him, through the columns 
of his journal, that the moral of 18 was never questioned. Intensive training 
for the different ball teams and the rooters' club was the order of the day. We 
feel most of the credit for the success in the championship series was due to the 
nine who were always on hand and were willing to sacrifice anything for the 
stake. But at the same time too much cannot be said in backing up this wonder- 
ful organization. Most of the boys, of course, went broke in the Fourth of July 
game with Evacuation 6; this was our only calamity. Almost immediately at 
the close of the baseball season the wounded began to arrive in big numbers. 
Decisive battles were being fought in the front lines. We, too, felt the need of 
sacrifice, and all hands pushed together in the strenuous time that followed and 
overcame every obstacle, and so smiled at hard work that we felt all the praise 
and admiration from those above us were well earned. The football season was 
at hand almost before we realized it. With only a few weeks' practice we jumped 
in and beat the two best teams in the valley. The game with 116, played on a mud 
field, was well fought, and it was only through considerable eflfort that we came 
out on top. All played a wonderful game, but honorable mention should go to 
Captain Tindall, Harrison, and Weber. Harrison's run across the enemy's goal 
line along with Weber's interference brought them both fame. Everybody got a 
pretty good haul out of this game and the proceeds were invested in the making 
of a big dinner at which all the officers were present. Wild boar headed the 
menu ; there were many after-dinner speeches and a delightful little dance marked 
the evening. 

This dinner practically marked the close of the hard-work days at Bazoilles. 
Especially on the day of the armistice, there was a let-up with nothing to do but 
celebrate. In the evening the whole company of us formed a parade and, headed 

69 



G 



N 



R A 



H 



O R 



Y 



by trumpeters and color-bearers, marched all through the town and visited each 
of the group hospitals, letting everyone know in a most enthusiastic manner that 
it was Base i8 approaching. 

Rumors began to circulate as to our early return. This, of course, tended to 
raise the spirits of the boys, and created a hustle and bustle in the "getting-ready" 
program. Finally the order came through to prepare and everything was got in 
shape for our departure. There never was a more happy bunch to leave a port 
in France than those of Base i8. Amid the au revoirs of the village, we marched 
down through Cow Lane and a waving of flags and some sad goodbyes — for some 
of the boys were well known in Bazoilles. 




OFFICERS QUARTERS 
70 



HISTORY OF HOSPITAL UNIT A 



IN April, 191 7, soon after the United States had entered the war, the Presby- 
terian Hospital, of Philadelphia, Pa., set itself the task of organizing, equip- 
ping and supporting a medical unit for service overseas. The call strongly 
appealed to many prominent surgeons and physicians, who were at the time 
connected with the hospital. Several other institutions throughout the city 
were organizing base hospital units, and it was therefore decided that a small 
mobile unit which might be used in any emergency, from that of a field hospital 
to the operating of a hospital train, would be more acceptable to the Medical 
Department at such a time. Dr. John. H. Jopson, one of the most prominent 
surgeons of the city, was selected to head the undertaking. Dr. Henry P. Brown, 
Jr., assisted Dr. Jopson, and it was he who recruited and organized the enlisted 
personnel of the Unit. With untiring effort. Dr. Brown labored day and night 
in the forming of the Unit, questioning each candidate and making a careful 
physical examination of all applicants. Toward the end of May, 191 7, advice was 
received to prepare the Unit for service, and from a total of more than three 
hundred names, forty-four men were to be selected; the number permitted for a 
unit of this type. On June 4, 191 7, the following named men were administered 
the oath of allegiance and sworn in for duty: 



Edwin I. Atlee, Jr. 
Harold L. Blancher 
Frank W. Borthwick 
James A. Brewster 
Calvin W. Brice 
Willian V. Brown 
David B. B. Buchanan 
Philip F. Coleman 
Lorin D. Cunningham 
Thomas A. Doris 
Winfield S. Downs 
Herbert H. Fellows 
James F. Roberts 
George R. Gross 



Claude S. Hampshire 
Charles A. Hartman 
Hichard H. Helm 
Harry R. Hess 
Marion F. Johnson 
Thomas B. Longhurst 
Clarence G. Mecouch 
Rowland F. Mellor 
Don G. Meredith 
Raymond B. Murray 
Frank B. McGowan 
Edward S. Newton 
Paul Otter 
Edmund J. Purdy 
Walter W. Savage 



William I. Shewell 
John A. Stewart 
Percy P. Teal 
William E. Tindall 
Jacob K. Tryon 
Patrick P. Wade 
Frederick R. Walters 
Norman B. Ward 
Walter C. Weber 
Brant S. Wheeler 
George C. Wheeler 
William H. Wilcox 
George W. Winaur, 3rd 
Thaddeus W. Wright 



72 



HISTORY OF HOSPITAL UNIT A 



Twelve officers were assigned for duty with the Unit with Major Jopson in 
command, First Lieut. Albert G. Mitchel as Adjutant, and First Lieut. Ralph W. 
Walker in command of the detachment. The nurse corps of twenty-one nurses 
was headed by Miss Kate Liddle, of Columbia Hospital, Wilkinsburg, Pa. 

Soon after the organization of the Unit was completed, Dr. Brown was called 
for service at Fort Oglethorpe, Ga. From then on he became separated from the 
work he had undertaken, and shortly received his majority and was ordered to 
Camp Upton. 

Contrary to expectations no further orders were received and the summer 
passed on without the Unit being called into active service. During this period, 
William V. Brown, James F. Roberts and Thaddeus W. Wright were released to 
enter other branches of the service, and the following men were enlisted : James B. 
Dulles, Louis C. Foell, Carl P. Marlow, Willard M. Clark and Horace E. Teter. 

On Novem.ber 6, 191 7, orders to mobilize were received, and on November 9, 
1917, the officers and men proceeded to Fort Porter, Buffalo, N.Y., where they 
were put through two months of intensive training and equipped for field service 
as a mobile unit. During this period the following non-commissioned officers 
were appointed: First Sergeant, Edwin I. Atlee, Jr.; Drill Sergeant, Rowland F. 
Mellor; Company Clerk, Corporal Philip F. Coleman, and Acting Mess Ser- 
geant, Corporal Horace E. Teter. 

TheUnit left FortPorter on January 10, I9i8,and proceeded to Camp Merritt, 
N.J., where it received its final inspection. On January 15, 1918, it was embarked 
on board the British steamship Carpathia, and left New York harbor the same 
day for duty overseas. It was a memorable trip. The first halt in the journey was 
at Halifax, N.S., where our steamer awaited the rest of the convoy. Two days 
later we were joined by seven other transports and a cruiser as escort and the 
voyage recommenced. The men were introduced to active work immediately. 
Major Jopson was appointed Transport Surgeon, the care of the sick and the sani- 
tation of the ship being under his immediate control. Three wards were opened 
and some of the men received early initiation into the duties of wardmaster, and 
the work of orderlies. There were over two thousand troops on board, repre- 
senting almost all branches of the service, and considerable sickness had to be 
cared for. 

The day before we were due to arrive, the convoy was surrounded and escorted 
by a number of small destroyers during the passage through the danger zone, and 
on January 30, 1918, the journey up the Clyde River was completed and the 
steamer docked at Glasgow, Scotland. Boarding a train at this port, the Unit 
arrived the following morning at Winchester, England, where it remained at this 
British rest camp for four days. Crossing from Southampton we glimpsed at 
daylight on February 4, 191 8, the shores of France for the first time. 

73 



GENERAL HISTORY 



While at Le Havre, all of the officers who had accompanied us this far were 
detached, except Lieutenant Mitchell, who was left in charge, and then we all 
realized that our organization as an individual unit was soon to lose its identity. 
We proceeded from this port two days later to Bazoilles-sur-Meuse. After ex- 
periencing travel of an unpleasant nature for many hours our destination was 
reached, and marching up the hill from the station, through the gate and into the 
grounds of Base Hospital No. i8, the last stage of our journey was complete. 

The arrival at Base Hospital No. i8 will always remain on our memories as 
a cause for joy and thankfulness, the first feeling of physical relief we had ex- 
perienced since leaving England. To partake of a warm meal once more and to 
rest at night upon a real bed were pleasures we had not anticipated. Unit A had 
found a home. Not a home of comfort and plenty alone, but a home of comfort 
and good cheer for the strangers who had come to take their part in the struggle 
with those who already had made an enviable record in their service to humanity 
and the world. 

Shortly after our arrival some of our officers joined us, but their stay was 
temporary and it was not long before they secured other assignments. Major 
Jopson, who took up his duties at Evacuation Hospital No. i at Sebastopol, 
later became Director of Surgery at that hospital with the rank of Lieutenant- 
Colonel. 



74 



TRIP OF SURGICAL TEAM No. 11 



SURGICAL TEAM NO. 1 1 had its station at Base Hospital No. i8, A.E.F., 
and was composed of the following personnel: Bertram M. Bernheim, 
Captain, M.C.; First Lieut. John C. Lyman; First Lieut. V. P. W. Syden- 
stricker; Miss Elizabeth Harlan and Miss Ruth Bridge, Nurses; Alexander 
Carter and Alva C. Woodard, Orderlies. On June 3, 1918, we were hurriedly 
ordered to report to the Division Surgeon of the Second Division at Meaux and 
from June 5th, the date of our arrival, until August 7th, the date of our relief, 
we served continuously at the advanced hospitals for seriously wounded — such 
institutions being placed as close as possible to the actual battle line in order to 
better handle the so-called non-transportables, or those cases which were unable 
to bear transportation back to the evacuation hospitals, which, as a rule, were 
some fifteen miles or so in the rear of the advanced hospitals. 

It is sad to relate, though, that the first hospital we worked in, at Jouilly-sur- 
Seine, was not very advanced — on the contrary it was some twenty-five miles or 
so in the rear of the fighting line. But it was the only American hospital at that 
time between the line and Paris and as such handled the non-transportables. 
Furthermore, occupying but one wing of a large convent boys' college, its total 
bed capacity at the start was but two hundred and fifty, so it was hardly more 
than a few hours after wounded began to come in that the place was full to over- 
flowing. And not only this, but the little group of surgeons of whom we were a 
part, were hopelessly swamped with work of the most ghastly type imaginable 
from the very first. But it must be remembered that those few days were perhaps 
the most critical days of the whole war. Paris was not simply threatened, Paris 
was in imminent danger, and disaster was about to fall upon the allied cause. 
So, in order to strengthen the line, in order to give courage to troops already 
sorely tried, and showing, perhaps, a tendency to waver, Marshall Foch hurriedly 
threw into the battle line the Second Division of the American Army. The entire 
movement was executed with such suddenness and rapidity that the Medical 
Department knew nothing of it till the troops were actually in battle. So our 
little hospital at Jouilly-sur-Seine, which was so ably commanded by Captain 

76 



TRIP OF SURGICAL TEAM No. ii 



Charles Mixter, of Boston, tried to stem the awful tide of wounded men as best 
it could. For about twelve days and twelve nights this hideous spectacle con- 
tinued. Toward the end of that time Evacuation Hospital No. 8 came in along- 
side of us and relieved the situation to a degree, but the worst was over by the 
time they arrived. It is, of course, well known that the Second Division was 
made up of the 5th and 6th regiments of Marines and the 9th and 23rd regiments 
of infantry. They blocked the Hun path near Chateau-Thierry and taught him a 
lesson at Belleau Woods that he never forgot — and they incidentally showed the 
world just what kind of stuff the American fighting man is made of. The con- 
duct of the wounded was inspiring to us surgeons, never a whimper, never a 
question, always a supreme confidence in us and thanks for what was done. This 
made it all the more trying for us because we knew how little was really being done 
for them ; we were quite aware of our own unpreparedness, unavoidable though it 
was. 

The Hun was finally stopped in his tracks, but it was quite apparent that it 
was only a question of time before he would launch another onslaught. So 
thousands and thousands and tens of thousands of American troops were hurried 
into the region — and this time the Medical Department came into its own. 
Hospitals of all sizes and types were got up, equipped, staffed and held in 
readiness, a little advanced hospital for non-transportables being established at 
La Ferte-sous-Jouarre, just a few miles back of the line. Indeed, this hospital 
was started before the first show was over but it did not function properly 
until later on. We moved up to it on July 5th and were there when the famous 
offensive started on July 15th. Up until that time things had been very quiet in 
the line and work was only of an intermittent character. With the Hun thrust, 
however, and our own counter, things broke loose and from then on it was a 
constant drive by day and by night. The wounded came in by the hundreds, 
ambulance trains seemed never ending. All seriously wounded such as abdomens, 
sucking chests, the terribly shocked and the bleeding were sorted out, retained 
and operated on by us, the remainder, and ot course, by far the majority, being 
sent on to the evacuation hospitals in the rear. 

The underlying idea of an advanced hospital is not only to afTord early and 
prompt operation to the desperately wounded but to provide a stopping place for 
them after operation, until their condition improves to such an extent that they 
may be evacuated. This plan we attempted to follow and did as far as lay in our 
power. There were four regular operating teams (occasionally two more), and by 
dint of constant hard work our preoperative tents were kept fairly well cleared. 
But our bed capacity was but a scant two hundred and soon gave out, so in order 
to make room, certain cases, that under ordinary circumstances should never 
have been moved, had to be evacuated, and a certain number of lives were lost as 

n 



GENERAL HISTORY 



a result. Again, however, it must be remembered that these were actual war con- 
ditions and such conditions do not permit of a perfect arrangement concerning 
such matters. As a result, however, of this experience we recommended that no 
advanced hospitals in the future should have less than five hundred beds and that 
if possible the number be one thousand. The suggestion was, we found, followed 
in certain instances later on. 

The allied counter-offensive was a joyous success from the very start, and, as 
a consequence our little advanced hospital became less and less advanced as the 
days succeeded each other and as our troops advanced. So along about July 24th 
some casual medical ofificers came in to care for our patients while we packed up 
our belongings and went forward ourselves — this probably being the first time a 
hospital of the A.E.F. had advanced. Chateau-Thierry had already fallen and it 
had been intended for us to move in there, but conditions were so indescribably 
chaotic and filthy as to render the shell-ridden city unfit as yet for human habita- 
tion. So our tents were pitched at Villiers-sur-Marne, around the chateau made 
famous by Mrs. Francis Wilson Huard in her well known book, "My Home in 
the Field of Honour." 

The chateau itself is not very large and was in a terrible state of filth and need 
of repair, but we managed to set up our operating room and one or two small 
wards on the lower floor, while the nurses and staff camped out as best they could 
on the two upper floors. All other personnel and wards were housed in tents set 
up wherever there was space available. But from the very start this poor place 
was overwhelmed; indeed, it never had a chance. Being quite close to the line at 
first and far in advance of all other hospitals — for a time it was even forward of the 
triage station, which was at a little town called Bazu. So in order to avoid the 
confusion resulting from this unusual situation Bazu was closed and we acted as 
the triage or sorting station ourselves. And how those wounded did come in! 
By ambulance, by truck, by Red Cross cars and Y.M.C.A. camions of all sorts, 
the lightly wounded at times riding on the tops of the cars, on their fenders and 
even, believe it or not as you choose, an occasional man would come in riding on 
the hood, so great was the stress, so limited, comparatively speaking, the trans- 
portation available for the wounded. 

And our poor personnel were so overworked. By day and by night did they 
slave and at times it was impossible even to unload the ambulances; they would 
simply stand in line waiting their turn to pull up and discharge their burden. 
Nor was this all of our trouble. According to the system in vogue for bringing 
wounded away from the field of battle, those cars of transport from battle area to 
triage comprise a unit which upon discharging goes immediately back for more, 
leaving the transportation from triage to advanced hospitals to another unit, 
and from here to the evacuation hospitals still another ambulance company did 

78 



TRIP OF SURGICAL TEAM No. ii 



the work. We subscribe to that system; the only trouble was that there was a 
general shortage of ambulances and conveyances of all sorts that was so marked 
that for hours and hours at a time it was simply impossible to evacuate our 
wounded even after they had been sorted. Under such circumstances when there 
is a bed capacity of about two hundred and fifty and the incoming wounded of 
one twelve-hour period number over a thousand (as happened not one day but 
many days) one can imagine what happened. The men sat or lay around on the 
ground, anywhere they could. The seriously wounded we operated on promptly, 
of course, and as far as lay in our power found cots for and held them. But here 
again stress of the occasion compelled us repeatedly to send out men who ought 
never to have been sent. 

There were only four operating teams here and usually we were very hard 
pressed to handle the seriously wounded. But whenever there was a lull in these 
cases we pitched in and did the lightly wounded who were awaiting transportation 
to the rear, because every battle wound, it matters not how slight, becomes in- 
creasingly dangerous in proportion to the length of time between its reception and 
its treatment by a surgeon. So we did all we could. 

But there were other features worthy of mention that contributed to the un- 
satisfactory episode at Villiers — features purely of a military nature, but which 
none the less affected us — and to our sorrow. All roads were packed and jammed 
at all times with camions filled with troops, with cavalry, with bicyclists, with 
ponderous artillery, all moving forward and all in a hurry until at times there 
came a jam which caused a lengthy stand still. But above all else, the ammuni- 
tion trains — and they were of interminable length — had precedence. So that not 
only was evacuation from the battle areas and evacuation from our triage terribly 
difficult and well-nigh impossible — especially was it slow and dangerous at night 
owing to the fearful condition of the roads and the absolute ban on all lights be- 
cause of danger from constantly lurking avions — but the food situation was at all 
times most precarious. We were able to give all wounded hot chocolate day and 
night, and this was a blessing, for there was little else fit to eat for days — for 
wounded, operated men, personnel, nurses and doctors. The only favorable 
feature in the whole show was the weather, which was in the main very pleasant 
and for the most part clear. 

So that it was most fortunate for us that our line was rapidly advancing, so 
rapidly, in fact, that by the second or third of August we were so far back that 
the carry became too great and it was decided to close the place. By this time 
other hospitals had moved into position all along the line, several being in 
Chateau-Thierry, which had been cleansed a bit, or just across the river. There 
was no thought of moving us up as had been done from La Ferte, because, owing 
to the actual scarcity of food, the tremendous press of work which had necessi- 

79 



GENERAL HISTORY 



tated such long and continuous shifts, the plague of flies and the unspeakable 
sanitary conditions of the whole place, most all the officers, nurses and enlisted 
men had contracted dysentery. The hospital was closed on August 5th. Our 
orders came ordering us back to our station on the 6th. We arrived on the 9th — ■ 
and as if we had not been through enough we were right royally shelled as we 
passed through Paris. 



80 



THE EXPERIENCES OF SURGICAL 
TEAM No, llA 



Captain Watt 
Captain Wharton 
Captain Happ 
Nurse Cushman 
Nurse Thompson 

Orderhes, Sergeant Scanlon and Private Brewster 

JULY 4, 1918, the above team (with the exception that Harvey Stone was 
Commanding Officer in place of Charles Watt) received orders to proceed 
from Base Hospital No. 18 and report to the Chief Surgeon, 42nd Division. 
This team had been organized a couple of weeks before in anticipation of a call 
upon the hospital (which already had two teams out — Bernheim's and Heuer's). 
Stone was the surgeon, Wharton his assistant and Happ the anaesthetist. It 
may be stated of Happ that he had never given a half-dozen anaesthetics in his 
life, but spent these two weeks diligently studying the art in the operating room 
at 18, with, fortunately, a low mortality. The morning of the 4th saw the team 
pull out in a G.M.C. ambulance, trailed by a Ford ambulance bringing baggage 
and a large hamper full of instruments and dressings, etc. Reluctantly we had 
to miss the baseball game between Base Hospital No. 18 and Evacuation Hospital 
No. 6, as a result of which game so many of our Unit went broke for weeks to 
come. We were told to proceed to Boursault, near Epernay, where the 42nd 
headquarters would be. The ride was very interesting, through Ligny, Vitry-le- 
Francois, Chalons, Epernay. When we arrived at Boursault we saw a very pretty 
chateau with a Red Cross flag, and on inquiring there found a very apologetic 
French medical officer, whe seemed very much frightened for fear we might remain, 
and sent us back to Chalons, where we spent the night at the Hotel Angleterre. 
Chalons we found a very interesting city, somewhat stripped of its civil popula- 
tion and filled with French and American soldiers. The next morning Stone 
found the office of the Medical Department, which directed us to Bussey-le- 

82 



THE EXPERIENCES OF SURGICAL TEAM No. IIA 



Chateau, about eighteen kilometers north of Chalons, on the road to Suippes. 
We arrived there that afternoon (the 5th) and found a large conglomeration of 
wooden shacks that had been used for four years by British and French and 
turned over the day before to the field hospitals of the 117th Sanitary Train of 
the 42nd Division. These, four in all, had only arrived the day before, and 
naturally they were upset. 

The French, with characteristic prudence, had left a staff of medical of^cers, 
quartermasters and personnel there, to be sure that all property was accurately 
accounted for. 

We were assigned to a barrack and had time to look around. Bussey-le- 
Chateau was then twelve kilometers back of the line, and a very small village. 
Our hospital, with a capacity of 1500 beds, was on the edge of the town, on a 
railroad track, and alongside two main roads. Across the road was a big am- 
munition dump. All night and every night after we could see column after 
column of French artillery, ammunition camions, and soldiers going up front. 
The dope was that the Boche was expected to start a big drive through this area 
(Rheims to the Argonne) in the direction of Chalons and Epernay, thus giving 
him the Marne from Chateau-Thierry to Chalons, and a basis for his next drive 
on Paris. 

From now till the 14th it was very quiet. Charles Watt relieved Stone as 
surgeon, Harvey reporting back to 18, as our Commanding Officer had been 
called away. Mobile Hospital No. 2, organized from the Presbyterian Hospital 
Unit, joined the hospital, as did several surgical teams and two shock teams in 
charge of Major Cannon. The mobile unit contributed an excellent operating 
equipment. The surgical teams were divided into day and night shifts. We 
were on day. There were no patients until the 14th, then hell broke loose. 

That day was alcoholically celebrated by the French to commemorate certain 
events in connection with the Bastille. After supper we were sitting in Captain 
St. John's office, Colonel Brewer was there and we were beginning to doubt if 
there was going to be an offensive. We learned from Colonel Brewer, the con- 
sultant surgeon of the 42nd, that that outfit had moved in and taken over a part 
of the second line. We went to bed as usual. At 12 midnight, we were awakened 
by a series of whizzing noises over our heads, a confusing roar of artillery punctu- 
ated by the blowing of a klaxon (the gas mask alert) and three shots (the gas 
alarm), so we sat up and put on our masks, and part of our clothes, and tin hats, 
and looked out. There was a tremendous drum barrage going on, the noise was 
terrific, heavies and barrage all mixed up in a roar. The unpleasant screeching 
noise was due to shells going over our heads and landing in a field back of us. 
They were said to be gas shells, hence the gas alarm. The Boches were shelling 
the back area, they said, and we should get under cover. The shells came over 

83 



GENERAL HISTORY 



very frequently now, and seemed to be landing uncomfortably close. Evidently 
the Huns were shelling the roads and the railroad, and the dump. The French had 
a dugout built at the hospital to cover such emergencies as these, so the first act was 
to move the patients and nurses to this dugout. The shells began to fall into the 
hospital, one hit a ward direct and killed two patients and a private, fortunately, 
the rest of the patients had been removed. Another hit an empty ward. Ambu- 
lances with patients began to come in. The night shift went on the job in spite of 
the shells. We, being on day shift, were ordered to the trenches which the 
thoughtful Frenchmen had built. Here we remained till 7 o'clock. In the 
meanwhile, a shell hit the operating room, so Colonel Brewer ordered operations 
off and everybody dug for shelter. A direct hit was made in the railway shed at 
the evacuating end of the hospital. It was a warm night. When morning came 
the shelling stopped, presumably to let the Fritzies go over the top. Our hospital 
was ordered to evacute at once. Between 8 and 10 a.m. we got all patients 
out, then nurses, and left ourselves at about 10.30, going to Ecury, south of 
Chalons. We kept on side roads, as the main Suippes-Chalons road was heavily 
shelled that morning, and we arrived at Ecury about noon, at E.H. No. 4. That 
was the last we saw of Bussey, but we heard the shelling started again at 2 p.m. and 
a direct hit was made on the operating room where we would have been working 
had we stayed there. Fortunately we were not there. We got a bite to eat with 
E.H. No. 4, and were immediately sent to Chalons to help out for the night at a 
French hospital which had turned a few beds over to Americans. The patients 
had begun to come in and they had nearly a thousand already at Ecury. We went 
to Chalons in the afternoon and pitched in and operated till 1 1 p.m. This was an 
awful night, as long range guns were heavily shelling Chalons, and Hun planes 
were busy bombing it, and anti-aircraft were very busy shooting at the Hun planes. 
We were relieved at 11 p.m. The cases, chiefly abdominal, were coming back 
badly shot up and shocked. We rested the best we could till morning, when we 
went back to Ecury. That night Hun planes dropped bombs directly on the 
hospital, making a direct hit, after which this hospital was abandoned. Luckily 
also we were not there. At Ecury we were told to go on night shift at 9 p.m. The 
hospital was jammed with wounded, 2,000 of the 42nd Division passing through 
this hospital in twenty-four hours. We did ten big cases that night. The next 
da.y (the 17th) was awfully hot but we were all in and slept fine. Just a word 
about the drive. The Boches had attacked on a ninety kilometer front, Chateau- 
Thierry to the Argonne, one of their biggest drives of the war. Somehow the 
French had got the German plans and knew they would begin their barrage 
at I a.m. and come over at 4 a.m. The French Fourth Army under General 
Gouraud held this .sector and the 42nd was sent in at the last hour attached to 
this French Army. The French started their barrage before the Boche, and had 

84 



THE EXPERIENCES OF SURGICAL TEAM No. IIA 



a tremendous amount of artillery in place. By plan the French evacuated their 
first line and the 42nd in the second line met the brunt of the attack and so had 
severe casualties, but the line held and the next day (the 15th) they counter- 
attacked and regained the original first line positions, so the Boche attack failed 
utterlv. Then it was that Gouraud sent word to Magnin that the line was 
holding and asked him to start with his Sixth Army the counter-attack at Sois- 
sons that turned the tide, and from that moment on to the end of the war it was 
the Allies that did the offensive work and the Boche never was able to put on 
another drive. Chateau-Thierry was taken and then the Soissons-Chateau- 
Thierry-Rheims pocket and so on. Papers captured on the Boches showed they 
expected to have Suippes on the 15th and Chalons on the i6th. The 42nd deserves 
great credit for their aid in this defense and were decorated by General Gouraud. 
Our stay at Ecury attached to E.H. No. 4 was not without excitement. On 
the i8th, we operated from 2 to 9 p.m. Then we went in for some sleep and were 
awakened at midnight by a terrific explosion close by. It proved to be a bomb 
which a Hun plane, circling very low, had dropped. It fell alongside the hospital 
but missed it, landing in a wheatfield, scattering fragments of iron in every 
direction. It fell just fifty yards from our tent and made a big dent in terra 
firma. Luckily no more were dropped. As there were no other objectives close by 
for the plane to drop bombs on, and our own hospital was clearly outlined by a 
red cross, this could not be taken as other than a deliberate bit of Hun hate. 
Fortunately no one was hurt. Being only a few miles from Chalons, we could see 
the anti-aircraft barrage and searchlights plainly. An ammunition dump several 
miles away was hit by an incendiary bomb and the explosion and fire that resulted 
were picturesque. Planes were over all the rest of the night, but one couldn't tell 
whether they were ours or the Boche's. July 19th the 42nd moved out of the line 
after their gallant defense, and we were told to get ready — that E.H. No. 4 would 
move. That night was a clear bright moonlight night, but the moon had lost its 
attraction for us. We were praying for rain. At 11.30 p.m. a Hun plane came 
over the hospital circling low and opened up with his front and rear machine guns 
on the hospital. He was very plainly seen. Then he went on and dropped two 
bombs on the village railway station. Nobody was hurt, but our faith in the 
Huns' observation of the Hague Conference was badly shaken and most of us 
slept the rest of the night in the wheatfield. On the 21st the hospital packed up 
and moved in 1 10 big trucks. We left at 6 p.m., and spent the night on the road, 
which was not very comfortable. We were going in the direction of Chateau- 
Thierry. Next day we arrived at Chateau-de-Perouse, near La Ferte-sous- 
Jourre. This was a beautiful chateau, with a park, lake, etc. Here we thought 
we would get a little rest, but as we were attached by orders to the 42nd Division, 
we were told to leave and report to our old friend Mobile Hospital No. 2, so we 

85 



GENERAL HISTORY 



got in an ambulance and joined them at Chateau de la Trouse, near Lizy, which 
is about halfway between Chateau-Thierry and Soissons. We joined this outfit 
with which we remained till we received orders to return to our base. They were 
at a pretty chateau, with the hospital set up on the grounds. We were about all 
in from our rides and excitement and lack of sleep, but were told to go on night 
shift, and worked from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. The Allied counter-offensive, Soissons to 
Chateau-Thierry, had begun on the i8th. We receivedpatientsnotonly from the 
42nd, but also from the First Army Corps, that is, the 42nd, ist, and 2nd Divisions. 
For the next few nights we were busy, then on the 28th it grew quiet. It was very 
nice there, except for the flies; we had good food, no bombing, and a nice chateau 
to lounge in. It belonged to a Count Crony, and had been occupied by the Boche 
in 1914. We found the Mobile No. 2 crowd very friendly and congenial. From 
the 25th to the 30th we were busy in spells. The advance had been going on 
steadily, but the ist American Corps had suffered about 25,000 casualties. 

On July 31st we were ordered to move to La Ferte-Milon, which is near 
Villers-Cotterets, where the operating party of Mobile No. 2 was to reinforce 
E.H. No. 3, which was set up there. They were right on the railroad track at 
what was then the railhead for the Soissons sector. La Ferte-Milon marked the 
extreme western line of the Boche June drive. They had shelled the town, which 
was of fair size, till there' was not a house or building left intact. We were there 
till August 4th, and did not receive a patient. I don't think they knew we were 
there ; at any rate we got to see the country about and the Villers-Cotterets woods. 
August 5th we moved to Crezoncy (near Chateau-Thierry) which had been re- 
taken. The route was along the line of the recent attack and very interesting — 
Boche ammunition all along the road. We didn't stay at Crezoncy long but 
were glad to see Chateau-Thierry, which was severely damaged with its bridges 
blown up and pontoons across the Marne. On August 6th we were ordered to 
Coincy, north of Chateau-Thierry, and near Fere-en-Tardenois. All this time 
we were moving but not operating. The line was now north of Fere-en-Tardenois. 
The Boche had left Coincy four days before we arrived. German road signs were 
still up and piles of German ammunition, dead men and horses, captured guns, 
and all sorts of interesting things, a feast for souvenir hunters. Mobile No. 2 set 
up here alongside of E.H. No. 4, and here we remained till our recall August 23rd. 
We worked on night shift, and in the daytime went sight-seeing. We went to 
Fere-en-Tardenois and saw the Boche shelling it, visited Quentin Roosevelt's grave, 
saw the emplacement of a Big Bertha that bombed Paris. There was no shelling 
or bombing. On the 23rd we received orders to report back at 18, and returned 
via Paris. Needless to say we did justice to a Cafe de Paris meal and a Hotel 
Continental bath tub. Our living had been pretty rough, but we all enjoyed it. 
However, we were glad to see the sign BAZOILLES. 

86 



TRIP OF SHOCK TEAM 
JULY 23, 1918, TO SEPTEMBER 23, 1918 



THE team was composed of Captain V. R. Mason, in charge, two nurses, 
Miss Stock and Miss Bowling, and Privates John Ryan and Clarence 
Petri, and its duties were to take charge of the very ill wounded and 
attempt to improve their condition to such an extent that operation would be 
possible. 

The team arrived at Chateau-Thierry July 27, 1918, after the usual difficulties 
that any organization has before it is able to function in time of war. It was 
installed in the Hotel Dieu, a Catholic hospital, which had been used by German 
troops during their stay in the city. From garret to cellar the place had been 
ransacked; the beds were stacked or broken, mattresses torn open, linen scat- 
tered everywhere, and the floors littered with hospital material of every sort. 
Almost every window pane was broken and several shells had made holes through 
the brick walls. 

The hospital was a very busy place, and for many days over five hundred 
gassed or wounded passed through in each twenty-four hours. Only the non- 
transportable wounded were held and treated and it was a depressing experience 
for all of us to see, day after day, terribly wounded men, many of whom died in 
spite of all treatment. 

The city was bombed several nights, but no serious damage resulted and 
none of the bombs fell near the hospital. 

From Chateau-Thierry the hospital moved to Cohan, a little village on a 
branching road about eleven kilometers south of Fismes (on the Vesle). The old 
cathedral of the village was occupied by the divisional triage and our hospital tents 
were pitched just beside one of the main roads to the front. There were batteries 
of 155's on both sides of us, and we could sit outside our quarters and see ten to 
fifteen of our own observation balloons and at times as many as nine Boche 
balloons. Occasional German shells were exploding on the hills around us and 
one exploded at the edge of the road about one hundred yards from the hospital, 
sending a large piece of casing through a ward tent. 

87 



GENERAL HISTORY 



The German aviators were constant visitors at night, bombing the roads and 
turning their machine guns on the troops and trucks. Two bombs landed within 
thirty yards of the tents, but fortunately failed to explode. After that all person- 
nel not on duty was required to find shelter and all evacuable patients were sent 
to the rear. 

A surgical team and the shock team were transferred August i8th to the 
triage and installed in a little house just at the edge of the village. The kitchen 
was used as an operating room, the dining-room for the X-ray, the cow stable for 
a shock and post-operative ward, and the wine cellar as a dugout. Only a few 
seriously wounded were received, and those usually in less than an hour after they 
had been found, so that professional work was very satisfactory. 

The nurses were very happy to be so near the front and when ordered back to 
a safer place protested, but in vain. They had worked almost without ceasing for 
many weeks, and had refused to leave the wounded no matter how real the danger 
was. The success of the team was due to their efforts and after they went back 
the teams were only too glad to be sent to another place. From Cohan the team 
was ordered to Villers-Cotterets August 27th, and from there again to Chateau- 
Thierry, September 7th. From that time the team ceased to function as such, 
although the nurses were held at A.R.C. Hospital No. no, where wounded were 
received from the Argonne Forest until late in October. 



88 



TRIP HEART STUDIES 



ON March 20, 1918, Dr. E. W. Bridgman was relieved from further duty 
with the organization and, as a prehminary to assignment in cardio- 
vascular work, was sent to England. On arriving he became attached to 
the British Army, and was located at the Military Heart Hospital at Colchester 
under Dr. Thomas Lewis. Six other Americans were already there, having been 
sent over some six months before by the cardio-vascular board in the States, and, 
together with two Britishers and two Canadians, they constituted the medical 
personnel of the 600-bed hospitals established at Sobraon Barracks for the es- 
pecial treatment of heart cases. The work was most instructive and interesting, 
comprising, for the most part, cases of disordered "action of the heart" — a nomen- 
clature applied to the American "effort syndrome" group. 

It was especially Dr. Lewis in England who emphasized the frequency of 
systolic murmurs in normal hearts, and who recognized the so-called irritable 
heart of DeCosta. He spread the knowledge extensively in his efforts to get out 
of bed and to work some of the 15,000 men who could be found at any one time 
scattered through the British hospitals. These men were being kept flat on their 
backs under digitalis therapy, and constituted a severe loss to the man-power of 
the British Army. He instituted graded exercises as a means of treatment and 
as a basis for re-classification — a method which was highly successful and so 
proved by his "Follow-Up System." A great many of these patients were sent 
out for front-line duty, and, with the exception of a very few who were discharged 
from the service, the rest were grouped for useful work behind the lines — general 
laborers, stenographers, painters, carpenters, etc. This work they could do as 
well as normal men, who could be thus relieved to fill the need in the front-line 
trench. 

The individuals with organic heart disease, as manifested by valve lesions or 
definite hypertropy, made up only about 5 percentof the total, and were immedi- 
ately discharged; so that the work had to do particularly with that interesting 
waste-basket of cases that is gradually being sorted into groups with more exact 
diagnosis. 

One cannot but comment on the different manner of working that the English 
employ. To be sure, it was a nation fatigued by a long drain on physical and 
nerve power, but their efforts were so different from those of the enthusiastic 

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Americans in France, who started early in the morning and carried through 
the day, often into the night and all day Sunday. The actual work at the 
heart hospital required but three to four hours per day, so that no small part of 
the Americans' time was devoted to week-ends and afternoon trips about England 
and Scotland, an exceptional opportunity. However, they learned the use and 
application of graduated exercises as being the method par excellence for the 
determination of a patient's ability as opposed to guessing, the stethoscope, or 
exquisite laboratory determination. 

This method was performed on a far more active scale in the American 
Expeditionary Force, and the knowledge of the varying types and degrees of 
the disordered action of the heart represents another experience for which America 
is indebted to England. The knowledge obtained from the mistakes of the 
English was speedily applied to the American Expeditionary Force, where efforts 
were further made to prevent the psychosis, hysterias and defense reactions from 
being too deeply grounded, by attending medical men, in the minds of those fresh 
from the horrors of war. 




TOKIO ALLEY 
90 



SURGICAL EXPERIENCE AT EVACUATION 
HOSPITAL No. 1 



WITH the movement of American troops to the front came the need of for- 
ward hospitals, and of these, Evacuation Hospital No. i was the first to be 
established and equipped for the reception of battle casualities. This hos- 
pital was at Sebastopol, in a French military barracks between three and four 
miles northwest of Toul, France. It was opened early in February, 1918, and oc- 
cupied half of the barracks, the other half then being occupied by a French medi- 
cal organization. This hospital was designated as a practical school for war 
surgery of the A.E.F., and among the first teams to be assigned there was the 
one consisting of Dr. George J . Heuer, M .C. , Private First Class ( later First Lieut. ) 
Garland M. Harwood, Private First-Class (later First Lieut.) Gilbert E. Meekins, 
Private First Class James Mclsaac, Miss Angele R. Millner and Miss M. Maye 
Liphart. On March 2, 1918, Dr. J. M. T. Finney took Dr. Heuer and the nurses 
to Sebastopol, and the other members of the team followed in an ambulance with 
the equipment. 

The first impressions were a bit gloomy. The officers messed in a snow-covered 
tent with overcoats, caps and gloves, and with their feet resting on bricks to keep 
them out of the deep mud. The wind-swept garret room assigned as quarters 
was impossible to heat, and the cleanliness of the place was that of the usual 
French hospital turned over to the American Army. These discomforts, however, 
were but temporary, and were, indeed, unavoidable in a newly developing insti- 
tution, and through the efforts of the commanding officer, better quarters were 
soon established for the nurses, officers and men. New mess halls were con- 
structed, officers' and nurses' clubs, Y.M.C.A. building for the men, and excellent 
bathing facilities for all. It is fair to say no hospital at the front accomplished so 
much for the physical comforts of its staff. 

This hospital was built on a plain six or eight miles from the front lines, with 
good roads between it and the front over which wounded could be rapidly trans- 
ported, and with Toul three or four miles to the southeast as a railhead for 
evacuating patients. The hospital consisted of numerous stone and brick build- 
ings, seven of which were large barracks and were suited for hospital buildings. 
In its early history, Evacuation Hospital No. i had three of the French pavil- 
lions and the French had four. Later it took over the entire institution, and 

91 



ENERAL HISTORY 



still later (just before the St. Mihiel drive) by the addition of huts and tents, in- 
creased its bed capacity to approximately three thousand. The equipment of the 
pavillions and the wards, at first rather scanty, soon was adequate for all needs, 
and aside from the fact that there was no running water, and that the beds were 
low, the wards were well suited for their purpose. 

The surgical work was so arranged that each surgeon had a distinct surgical 
service. He had a definite period of duty during which he received and operated 
upon all cases entering the hospital. He had a surgical team which remained 
intact over long periods so that he could train it to work most efficiently, and 
which was large enough so that daily dressings and careful attention for the post- 
operative care of patients was possible. Each team had its own operating room 
and surgical ward, a clerk to keep the records, and the operator was absolutely 
i ic ependent so that he could carry out his own ideas in the treatment of his cases. 
There were many advantages in such an arrangement; it provided a spirit of 
friendly rivalry among the teams, it stimulated new ideas, it made possible the 
carrying on of the work, often under trying circumstances, with the least labor 
and friction. 

During only one period in the hospital's experience was this arrangement of 
work changed. Just preceding the St. Mihiel drive our bed capacity was in- 
creased to approximately three thousand beds, and our surgical personnel to 
fifteen surgical teams; and during the latter part of the drive by taking over the 
teams of Mobile Hospital No. 3, and several from another evacuation hospital, to 
twenty-six surgical teams. With this change came the need of a different arrange- 
ment of the surgical work. The surgical service was put iji charge of a Surgical 
Director (Dr. Heuer), who did no operative work himself, but acted as Triage 
Officer (i.e., saw all cases on admission, decided whether they were or were not 
operative, whether or not they required shock treatment, what surgeon they 
should go to, what ward they were to be assigned to, etc.), as consulting surgeon 
to the operating room and ward surgeons, and as evacuatifon officer to the ex- 
tent of decidi^ng what pre- and post-operative cases could safely be evacuated. 
First Lisut. Walter Holmes acted as Dr. Heuer's assistant, and being on night 
duty shared equally with him the responsibility of the position. The surgical 
teams were put on twelve-hour shifts and were held responsible only for the 
operating-room work, and not for the surgical dressings and after-care of their 
patients in the wards. The pavilions and wards were divided so that cases of a 
similar nature were grouped together into head, chest, abdomen, bone and 
joint and soft part wards. They were put in charge of ward surgeons who had no 
operating-room duties at all, but confined themselves entirely to the dressings, 
after-care, and records of the patients under their charge. The surgical work 
itself was altered to the extent that no wounds were closed, excepting those of 

92 



SURGICAL EXPERIENCE AT EVACUATION No. 1 



the scalp or brain, face, chest and knee joints. In passing, it may be said to the 
credit of the institution that during the period of the St. Mihiel drive no patients 
were evacuated without operation who (as was decided at a conference of sur- 
geons) could not safely be transported; ever}^ patient awaiting operation was 
under shelter and warm; and no patient operated upon was evacuated until a 
first dressing had been done. This last point is important, for it enabled us to 
discover and reoperate upon patients with post-operative gas infections before 
they were sent on an indefinite train journey. 

Dr. Heuer remained on detached duty at Evacuation Hospital No. i until 
after the armistice, when he was returned to Base Hospital No. i8. The nurses 
were changed at intervals of six or eight weeks, so that the opportunity of secur- 
ing surgical experience in an evacuation hospital was obtained by seven nurses 
in all. Private first class Harwood remained with Dr. Heuer until he was gradu- 
ated and commissioned as a first lieutenant in the Medical Corps. Privates 
first class Meekins and Mclsaac were replaced by privates first class Richard 
C. Coblentz and Edward A. Robinson, and later by two men from Evacuation 
Hospital No. i. The nurses besides Miss Millner and Miss Liphart who were at 
various times on duty as part of Dr. Heuer's team were Misses Marion Beal, 
Mary G. Lyman, Ethel Jones, Bessie W. Omohundro, and Margaret W. Sayres. 




WARD INTERIOR 

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VASSENY TRIP 



IN order to give the Medical Service of the A.E.F. the benefit of three years' 
experience in handhng wounded and "war surgery" the French Service de 
Sante invited the Surgeon in Chief to send several operating teams to the 
various organizations behind the Chemin des Dames for practical experience 
and observation. A large attack was to, be made toward the end of October. 
Every detail wa;? carefully worked out and especially was this true of hospital 
formations. Base Hovspital No. i8 was called on to furnish a team and the follow- 
ing representatives were sent: Capt. Wm. S. Baer, in charge; Lieut. H. R. Slack, 
assistant surgeon ; Lieut. H. N. Shaw, anaesthetist ; Lieut. Chas. A. Waters, roent- 
genologist; Miss Annie Barnard and Miss Mae Liphart, nurses; Messrs. Hugh 
Morgan and Albert McCowan, stretcher bearers. 

The team left Bazoilles September 27, 1917; reported to French authorities at 
Le Bourget, September 28, 1917. Here we met two other teams like ourselves, one 
from the Roosevelt Hospital headed by Dr. Peck, with the genial Henry Cave 
along, and another from the New York Hospital (Base 9). After an all-night 
ride in cramped quarters, we all arrived at Braisne on the Vesle River, about 
7 a.m., September 29th. All three teams were sent at once out to H.O.E. No. 18, 
situated at Vasseny, on the road between Rheims and Soissons. One felt like there 
was really a war going on, for the guns could easily be heard and at night the 
star shells gave a most fascinating effect. There was much discussion among 
the French officers as to the advisability of putting a hospital so close to the 
lines — it was just ten kilometers from the trenches and subject to shell fire; the 
general concensus of opinion was that it should have been five kilometers further 
to the rear. But we were glad enough to be up near the scene of activity and 
excitement. 

Each team was assigned to one of the three auto chirurgies, headed by Bres- 
chat. Margins, and Duval. Our team was with M . Breschat. The hospital had about 
4,000 beds, 1,000 being assigned to each of the three operating units, and the 
other 1,000 being used for the specialties, particularly face cases under the direc- 
tion of Professor Morestln. In addition to this there were ample provisions for 

94 



VASSENY TR 



dressing and feeding and resting a few hours the petit hlesse. The buildings con- 
sisted of wooden barracks and Bessaneau tents. Numerous dugouts and sand- 
bag barricades afforded protection against possible air raids. The receiving 
triages were admirably arranged for the speedy handling of patients and there 
was never any delay in unloading the ambulances. All these details were intensely 
interesting and it formed a basis for our own organization, though I haven't heard 
of a single American evacuation hospital that functioned so satisfactorily and 
smoothly as did the French H.O.E. i8 in October, 1917. And this may in a large 
measure be attributed to the well-nigh perfect transportation facilities — both 
motor and rail — for handling the wounded. Another important factor was the 
success and steady advance of the attack without any counter-offensive, which 
enabled the stretcher bearers to get a man as soon as he was down. The average 
time from the moment a soldier was hit until he was on the operating table was 
about eight hours — and of course he had been through the X-ray and been 
cleaned up after a fashion in the meantime. Getting the cases so early naturally 
yielded better surgical results and saved many lives and limbs. It was par- 
ticularly interesting to the writer for it afforded an opportunity to appreciate 
the advances made by the French Service de Sante, since the beginning of the 
war. The type of surgery was wonderfully improved and the hospital organiza- 
tion and administration did not seem to belong to the same system as existed in 
France during the fall of 1914 and the winter of 1915. 

It woulci hardly come in the scope of such an article to describe in detail the 
organization of the hospital and the various views on war surgery. Suffice to say 
that everyone gathered very definite impressions of some of the essentials; es- 
pecially the importance of X-ray and accurate localization; the possibilities of 
primary closure; the correlation of wound bacteriology and surgery; the use of the 
Carrel-Dakin method of wound cleansing with subsequent secondary closure. 
The ideas obtained by just such observations formed a basis for the teachings on 
war surgery promulgated by the various schools and by the Consultants in the 
Medical Department of the A.E.F\ So much for generalities. 

During the rush, which lasted about four days, the teams in our unit worked 
in eight-hour shifts, our team doing a regular turn, taking the cases as they came 
in. Eleven cases was the largest number we put through during the turn. A great 
deal was learned about conservation of supplies and instruments, speed, etc., in 
such emergency work. But all this is an old story now. 

In the eight hours off we had to look after the dressings of our cases, and for a 
time there was so much new and interesting — unloading ambulances, bringing 
in German prisoners, loading trains for evacuations — that no one thought of 
sleeping. However, the novelty soon wore off, and we slept soundly in spite of 
the artillery. 

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Dr. Marquis was much interested in Dr. Baer's plaster casts and in working 
out the use of the Thomas spHnts, so we looked after all fractures on Dr. Marquis' 
service. The tireless and efificient work of Misses Barnard and Liphart and of 
Morgan and McCowan reflected much credit on our team. 

This story would not be complete without mentioning Hank Shaw's rivalry 
with Heiny Cave for the smiles and favors of some of the French nurses — es- 
pecially the "skinny girl." Buck Waters furnished much amusement by his 
daily dope and terror of exploding shells — also a flight over le Fort de la Mal- 
maison. Bazoille, Dr. Baer's chow dog, came up by a special messenger and 
became a regular member of the team, and incidentally somewhat of a care to 
Buck. We all got to Soissons several times; went to advanced dressing posts; 
saw Chasseny, Vailly and Lixy, destroyed villages near the fighting; experienced 
the sensations produced by proximity to Boche shell fire; witnessed several air 
battles, etc. Probably the pleasantest feature of the trip was the cordial relations 
with the French medical officers and some Chasseur Alpine officers, with whom 
we frequently dined and passed an evening. Coke Williamson (from New York 
Hospital) with his beard and clog dancing was very effectual in bringing about 
this fraternizing. We all learned some French. 




INTERIOR OF A WARD 



96 



REPORT OF THE ACTIVITIES OF THE 
DIVISION OF GENERAL SURGERY 



I. The Division of General Surgery was organized by the appointment of 
Maj. John M. T. Finney, M.R.C., as Director, Division of General Surgery, 
A.E.F., by G.O. 58, par. 4, G.H.Q., A.E.F., November 10, 1917. Maj. Charles 
H. Peck, M.R.C., and Maj. William A. Fisher, Jr., M.R.C., were appointed 
Assistant Directors, Division of General Surgery, on December 22, 1917. On 
January 28, 1918, a joint office was opened in Neufchateau, with the Directors of 
Orthopaedic Surgery, Psychiatry and Genito-Urinary Surgery, and has been main- 
tained there up to the present time. Subsequently the Directors of the Divisions 
of Roentgenology and General Medicine with their assistants took up quarters 
in the same office. Each of these Divisions reported directly to the Chief 
vSurgeon, A.E.F. Pursuant to G.O. 88, par. i, G.H.Q., A.E.F., June 6, 1918, the 
designations of the Chiefs of the various divisions were changed and co-ordinated 
under a Director of Professional Services, Lieut. -Col. W. L. Keller, M.C., 
Maj. J. M. T. Finney, M.R.C. was designated as Chief Consultant, Surgical 
Services, A.E.F. , with the subdivisions of Surgery directly under him, as follows: 

Maj. James T. Case, Senior Consultant in Roentgenology. 

Maj. George W. Crile, M.R.C, Senior Consultant in Surgical Research. 

Maj. Harvey Gushing, M.R.C., Senior Consultant in Neurological Surgery. 

Maj. Joel E. Goldthwait, M.R.C, Senior Consultant in Orthopaedic Surgery. 

Maj. James F. McKernon, M.R.C, Senior Consultant in Ear, Nose and 
Throat Surgery. 

Maj. Charles H. Peck, M.R.C, Senior Consultant in General Surgery. 

Maj. Hugh M. Young, M.R.C, Senior Consultant in Venereal, Skin and 
Genito-Urinary Surgery. 

Maj. Vilray P. Blair, M.R.C, Senior Consultant in Maxillo-facial Surgery. 

Maj. Allen Greenwood, M.R.C, Senior Consultant in Ophthalmology. 

The various subdivisions of surgery by this order were co-ordinated under the 
Chief Consultant, and held directly responsible to him. 

Only two changes in the above personnel have since taken place. Lieut. -Col. 
Charles H. Peck, the Senior Consultant in General Surgery, was ordered to return 
to the United States for duty at the office of the Surgeon-General in the early part of 

97 



GENERAL HISTORY 



July, 1918. Lieut. -Col. William A. Fisher has since acted in his stead. Lieut. -Col. 
James T. Case was succeeded on October 20, 1918, by Col. Arthur C. Christie. In 
October, Col. Allen B. Kanaval was added to the staff of the Chief Consultant. 

2. The first step taken in the professional care of the wounded by the Division 
of General Surgery was the recommendation for the appointment of a surgical 
consultant in each of the four divisions which were in France at that time. These 
appointments were as follows: Maj. George E. Brewer as Consultant to the 42nd 
Division, Maj. Frederic A. Besley as Consultant to the 26th Division, Maj. 
John H. Gibbon as Consultant to the ist Division, and Capt. Burton J. Lee as 
Consultant to the 2nd Division. These consultants met the medical ofificers of the 
divisions to which they had been assigned as frequently as possibly, and en- 
deavored to give them the benefit of the experience which they had gained while 
serving with medical formations attached to other allied armies and to instruct 
them, so far as possible, in the clinical duties expected of them. When these 
divisions went into the line, the consultants soon found that their services were 
more valuable in the hospitals to which the wounded were taken for definitive 
surgical treatment and thereafter their time and attention were directed chiefly 
to the work in these organizations. In the case of the ist and 42nd Divisions, 
this was in Evacuation Hospitals Nos. i and 2, which were established in Feb- 
ruary and March, 1918. In the other two divisions, which were operating with 
the French, and to whom they were entirely responsible for all of the surgery 
which was done there, the activities of the consultants v^/ere confined to observa- 
tion of the methods employed and of the treatment that our men were receiving 
from them. 

This arrangement did not prove wholly satisfactory. In the case of one 
division, the treatment of the wounded by the French was so unsatisfactory, 
that the surgical consultant, with the co-operation and consent of the division 
surgeon, collected a fairly complete surgical hospital and organized from the 
personnel of the division, operating teams, which he carefully trained in the 
technique of modern war surgery. The consultant in this instance personally 
headed one of the teams and remained with the division during the whole subse- 
quent campaign. It soon became apparent that for various reasons the idea of 
having a surgical consultant in each division was inadvisable. The chief ob- 
jection to this arrangement was that being attached to divisions, the consultants 
could not have supervision of the surgical work in the evacuation hospitals to 
which those divisions evacuated. Then, too, with the constant change of loca- 
tion of divisions, and with the possibility of more than one division evacuating to 
the same hospital, it became evident that this arrangement would not be practical 
or possible. As Circular No. 25 provided for a consultant and assistants for 
formations equivalent to an army corps, the appointment of corps consultants 

98 



ACTIVITIES OF THE DIVISION OF GENERAL SURGERY 



and assistants was requested, as it was believed that the corps would be an area 
formation and that these consultants would also be able to supervise surgery in 
the evacuation hospitals. This arrangement was satisfactory until the First Army 
was formed. Then it developed that the corps would be almost as mobile as the 
divisions, so that the same objections, which applied to divisional consultants 
in connection with their relations to evacuation and mobile hospitals, obtained. 

The solution of the difficulty seemed to be the assignment of a consultant to 
each army with a sufficient number of assistants to supervise the surgical work 
in all the evacuation and mobile hospitals. These officers, by virtue of their army 
connection, would then have the authority to supervise the surgical work in all 
the formations in the army. This policy was put into operation in both the First 
and Second Armies and during the short period of time in which it was tried, 
proved to be satisfactory and bid fair to yield good results with the least expen- 
diture of medical officers. 

Although some difference of opinion developed among division surgeons as to 
the need for surgical consultants in the divisions, corps surgeons, who have had 
experience as division surgeons, seem to be unanimously of the opinion that 
surgical consultants are under existing Army rules unnecessary in divisions and 
corps, and that their assignment to the army is the most satisfactory arrangement. 
From the very outset it was apparent that field hospitals had neither the equip- 
ment nor the personnel to do serious surgical work. There was a decided tendency 
as each new division went into the line, for the division surgeon to have the 
wounded treated in field hospitals. Orders were therefore requested and subse- 
quently issued from the chief surgeon's office to division surgeons, that no opera- 
tions were to be done in field hospitals where evacuation hospitals were available. 
This m.ade it possible not only to supervise the surgical work with less consultants, 
but also to concentrate in evacuation and mobile hospitals the most experienced 
surgeons, with assistants, nurses and orderlies who had been previously organized 
in the form of teams. 

One of the first things that was undertaken when the Division of General 
Surgery w^as organized was the formation of surgical teams from the personnel 
of the base hospitals. On January 7, 1918, a letter was sent to all the base hos- 
pitals then in France asking them to organize one or two teams from each hospital, 
to consist of an operator, assistant, anaesthetist, two nurses and two orderlies. 
The operator in each case was to be one of their most experienced men, and the 
assistant, a man who was capable of soon heading a team himself. As a result of 
this circular letter, twelve to fifteen teams were soon available for duty with our 
own forces or those of the Allies, and were requested to hold themselves in readi- 
ness for service in the immediate future. As other base hospitals arrived they 
were asked to furnish this office with a list of the personnel of at least two such 

99 



GENERAL HISTORY 



teams. On the opening of Evacuation Hospital No. i, three teams, one each from 
Base Hospitals Nos. 9, 15 and 18, were assigned to it to perform the surgical work, 
which was then beginning to come in from the 1st Division then in the trenches. 
The consultant assigned to the 1st Division also supervised the work of these 
teams, and acted as the Surgical Director of Evacuation Hospital No. i. This 
hospital, being the only hospital of its kind then in operation in the A.E.F., was 
used as a school where the heads of other teams could be sent for purposes of ob- 
servation and instruction. Later on, when other evacuation hospitals were es- 
tablished and became actively engaged in surgical work, they were used for the 
same purpose. This eventually gave a fairly good nucleus of well trained oper- 
ators, but there came a time later on when the need for teams was so acute that 
it became impossible to give them this preliminary training, and when, owing to 
extreme urgency, it became necessary to make use of offtcers who had not had 
any preliminary training in military surgery, and among them even those who in 
civil practice would not be considered first-class surgeons. These men were drawn 
from every available source, casuals, divisions, camp hospitals and even from the 
classes attending the sanitary school. There were two factors which made it 
necessary, under the circumstances, to do this: (i) the fact that there was not 
a reserve of well trained unattached surgeons, which could be drawn upon for 
this purpose, and (2) the necessity of keeping in the base hospitals competent 
operators to take charge of the patients evacuated from the front in preoperative 
and post-operative trains. Toward the latter part of the campaign, there Avere 
nearly three hundred organized teams, approximately two hundred of which 
were on duty with the First and Second Armies, and with divisions which were 
operating independently. Generally speaking, these teams were assigned to 
evacuation and mobile hospitals, but under exceptional circumstances they were 
also sent to field hospitals, when such were acting as hospitals for non-trans- 
portable cases. This was especially true in the Chateau-Thierry district, when 
the army had moved forward to such a distance that it was not possible to trans- 
port serious cases to the evacuation hospitals which had not yet moved up. In the 
St. Mihiel and Argonne sectors, this was not necessary as the mobile hospitals 
were used for this purpose. 

One new feature in the care and treatment of the wounded that has been de- 
veloped quite recently is the preoperative train. By this is understood a hospital 
train which is filled with unoperated cases which would not suffer as a result of 
railway transportation and a delay of from twenty-four to thirty-six hours. The 
chief surgeon of the First Army was furnished with a list of the types of cases 
which were considered suitable for preoperative trains, and at the time of the 
offensive in the St. Mihiel sector, and thereafter, this idea was put into practice, 
with the result that the front hospitals were relieved of a large number of cases. 

100 



ACTIVITIES OF THE DIVISION OF GENERAL SURGERY 



The cases thus transported were operated upon mainly in the advanced base 
hospitals, which for the time being really became evacuation hospitals for the 
slightly wounded. No bad results from the development of gas gangrene were 
observed, except in a few instances where the trains had to be sent to the more 
distant bases. 

The necessity for consultants in the large hospital centers had been apparent 
for a long time, but the shortage of officers of the proper type, owing to their 
urgent need at the front, made their assignment to these positions impossible 
until toward the end of the campaign. On the appointment of consultants in the 
base hospital centers, it was the purpose of the chief consultant to hold monthly 
or semi-monthly meetings of all the consultants, so that there might be an inter- 
change of ideas and a discussion of methods of treatment, thus bringing about 
a co-ordination of the surgical work between the front and rear. At the same 
time it would be possible for the consultants in the forward areas to check up the 
results of the work done by the teams and organizations for which they were 
responsible. 

In addition to the activities of the Division of Surgery directly connected with 
the treatment of the wounded, the senior consultants of the subdivisions of surgery 
as well as the surgical consultants connected with tactical organizations gave lec- 
tures to the students in the Sanitary School at Langres on surgical subjects con- 
nected with their respective departments. Reports on the activities of the subdi- 
visions of surgery will be submitted by the senior consultant in each department. 




WARD INTERIOR 
lOI 



RECONSTRUCTIVE FACE AND JAW SURGERY 



ON May, 23, 1918. Drs. B. Lucien Brun and Harvey B. Stone were ordered 
on a tour of inspection of the large French hospital centers in which 
special attention was devoted to correcting deformities of the face and 
jaw resulting from battle injuries. The first hospital visited was at Tours — 
Hopital Complementaire Temporaire du Territoire N^. 2. At the time of this 
visit there were no fresh cases in the hospital and most of the old cases had been 
recently moved out, because, in consequence of the great German offensive, 
the hospital had been changed in character to serve the purpose of an evacuation 
hospital, therefore, only one day was spent at this place. Major Ombredanne, 
the chief of the surgical service, was exceedingly courteous, and showed us all the 
cases he had, and also his museum of plaster and wax models representing 
cases treated there in the past. Captain LeDoux-LeBard, chief of the X-ray 
service, was also most helpful and kindly. 

The next place visited was Bordeaux. Here there was an extensive service 
devoted to general head cases under the supervision of Dr. E. J. Moure, a nose 
and throat specialist, who works in co-operation with Dr. A. Herpin, a dental 
surgeon of distinction in the French army. A week was spent at this place, during 
which time a large number of cases were seen in various stages of treatment. The 
many types of appliances employed for fixation of the jaw in cases of fracture 
were particularly ingenious and well worked out. The surgical work of an 
operative character was of a high order and was executed in close co-operation 
with the dental procedures. The whole clinic was admirably conducted. The 
fundamental principles insisted on were that the reconstruction of bony defects 
was the first essential to securing good results, and that the plastic surgery of the 
soft parts must be made secondary to proper reconstruction of the skeleton. 
This point of view naturally placed marked emphasis on the importance of 
proper dental splinting, and has led to the development of an extensive lab- 
oratory for the construction of the dental splints above alluded to. 

After this, the next clinic visited was at Lyons, where Dr. A. Pont, a dental 
surgeon, was in charge of the work under investigation. In this clinic many 
instructive cases were seen and much valuable information acquired. Perhaps 

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RECONSTRUCTIVE FACE AND JAW SURGERY 



the most interesting single development of the work here was the extensive use 
of cosmetic appliances to replace lost portions of the face, either temporarily, 
where surgical reconstruction of the lost organ was being planned, or perma- 
nently, when such reconstruction was considered impossible. As a result of 
much experiment along this line, a paste containing wax and gums, with coloring 
matter, has been invented, which is easily moulded, and reproduces most satis- 
factorily the appearance of normal flesh. From this paste, noses, ears and lips 
are modeled and attached to the unfortunate mutilated person with surprisingly 
good effects. The method has a wide field of usefulness in rendering more tolerable 
the existence of these unfortunate people, and is worthy of employment in our 
own army. 

About a week was spent in Lyons, and then the various clinics in Paris were 
visited. Paris was reached just at the time when the Germans were shelling the 
city and had made their second advance to the Marne with the capture of 
Chateau-Thierry. All the hospitals about Paris had been emptied of their old 
patients and were filled with freshly wounded of all descriptions, so that little 
chance was afforded for the observation of the special type of work under con- 
sideration, which is slow and time consuming, and is not done in evacuation 
hospitals. However, the Hopital Val de Grace, where Professor Morestin has 
done a great deal of face and jaw work, was visited, as was also the American 
hospital at Neuilly. At both these places interesting museum specimens and 
X-ray plates were seen and instructive talks were given by the surgeons who have 
been engaged in this reconstructive work. The further prospects of the trip were 
interrupted here by a telegram recalling the team to Base Hospital No. i8 1o 
meet the rush of work which was then coming in. 



105 



MEDICAL CARE OF AVIATORS 



EARLY in the development of plans for the Expeditionary Force, certain 
officers of the Medical Corps were sent to England to study the methods 
in use there. Unfortunately the plans they proposed were too sweeping 
as to elaborate organization, and did not meet with the approval of the Chief 
Surgeon or the General Staff. The net result of this disagreement was that 
nothing was done to organize or prepare the medical service with the air service 
units to meet its peculiar problems. It was not until May, 1918, that on the 
request of the Chief of Air Service the matter was again opened in the Chief 
Surgeon's office. Meantime, in the United States, a separate medical department 
was organized and development made along two distinct lines. A number of 
specialists in the ear and eye were appointed "Flight Surgeons" and equipped 
with turning chairs and a portable eye-testing set and turned loose to test and 
classify candidates for flying. This has lead to a rather narrow point of view as 
to the criteria of flying fitness. The second development was the so-called 
research laboratory, in which physiology, psychology, general medicine and the 
eye and ear were represented and an elaborate equipment of special apparatus 
provided. This latter development is much more important and has furnished 
the means of accumulating important facts. 

As the Medical Department in France had absolutely no information of the 
developments at home, a start was made independently by sending an officer to 
the English laboratories to study their methods in the newly organized Royal 
Air Force, made up of the older independent organizations of the Army and 
Navy. It so happened that Dr. Thos. R. Boggs was selected for this duty, and 
he spent some five weeks in the close study of the administration, hospitalization 
and laboratory methods, finding much of practical value. As a result of his 
report and recommendations on the British R.A.F., he was instructed to prepare 
a report on the present status of medical work with our air service in France, 
with recommendations. After the completion of this duty in August, 1918, he 
was detached from the office of the Chief Consultant Medical Service, and as- 
signed to the Staff of the Chief of Air Service, Major-General Patrick, as Medical 

107 



GENERAL HISTORY 



Consultant Air Service, with direct access to the Chief Surgeon and to the 
Chief of Air Service. It was to be his duty to reorganize and co-ordinate the 
medical work in this field as a bureau of the Medical Department. 

While the plans for this change were formulating and passing slowly through 
the machine, there arrived from the States Medical Research Laboratory Num- 
ber I, headed by Col. W. H. Wilmer, with a large staff of experts and many tons 
of apparatus. This most fortunate coincidence greatly accelerated the possi- 
bilities of improved work. The laboratory was stationed at the principal training 
center, Issoudun, and as soon as some apparatus could be unpacked and installed 
work began in temporary quarters. Almost immediately the influence of this 
improved work was evident in the falling ofT in accidents at the training center. 

Meantime Dr. Boggs' own work was that of advance agent and general ad- 
viser. This kept him traveling over a great part of France to the air service 
groups in corps and armies and to the scattered schools in the intermediate and 
base sections. A great deal of discussion with commanding air service chiefs was 
necessary to get them interested in giving the new methods a trial, co-operating in 
the general measures designed for the health and fitness of the flying men and 
recognizing the fact that in its last analysis flying fitness was a medical rather 
than a military problem. In addition to this, it fell to his lot to deal with the 
Red Cross in devising a plan for special rest homes for the flying men, which 
should give them comfort, good food and attractive physical exercise, away from 
large towns and their temptations. They also arranged for the development of 
student officers' messes at the schools, with American ladies to manage them and 
to furnish the normal feminine associations which are the best offset to the temp- 
tations to which these temperamental young men are peculiarly prone. Plans 
were also made for mobile recreation tents to go with the squadrons and furnish 
reading and games and a comfortable sitting-room, so much needed in the iso- 
lated life inseparable from the field work of squadrons. With the change in the 
Chief Surgeon's office which occurred about this time, there was also necessary 
more frequent visits to Tours, in order, by personal presentation, to get more 
active co-operation with our aims. 

In general it may be said that the work, while only in active progress for 
about fourteen weeks of the battle period, has resulted in the recognition of the 
essential and permanent value of special medical supervision of all fl^nng per- 
sonnel by the military administration of the air service. Ample material has 
been placed at our disposal for a careful comparative study of the experienced 
pilots, observers and bombers from the front as a means of checking the labora- 
tory methods and arriving at the truth with regard to their value. Special 
facilities for leave and recreation have been recognized as essential to efficient 
service, and the trained medical man has been accepted as a valuable assistant, 

io8 



MEDICAL CARE OF AVIATORS 



instead of viewed with suspicion. All of this has a great bearing on the future 
development of the air service. 

In conclusion it must be emphasized that the laboratory work which is such 
an essential part of the scheme was developed in the States and all credit is due 
to Colonel Wilmer and Lieutenant-Colonel Rowntree for this work, without 
which we should have been very slow in getting started. And, furthermore, that 
the intelligent interest and support of the Chief of Air Service and the Chief of 
Training were all that could be asked, and were a most important element in the 
rapid progress made. 



109 



PROFESSIONAL RECORDS OF HOSPITAL 



THE following report includes a list of the diseases treated at Base Hospital 
No. i8 from its opening, August i, IQ17, until its official close, on January 
8, 1919. The classification of diseases is that employed in the Manual 
of Sick and Wounded Reports of the A.E.F., revised September 15, iQiB. 

Analyses of Report 
I. Infectious and Epidemic Diseases. 

The predominating disease in this subdivision is influenza, which included 
many cases of fever of unknown origin of the three-day type. Under the diag- 
nosis of influenza are therefore included many cases of what has been termed in 
the A.E.F., "Spanish Flu," whose etiological relationship to the influenza 
bacillus is still a matter of discussion. 

The large number of cases of typhoid fever is striking and is explained by the 
fact that Base Hospital No. 18 was designated to receive all cases of typhoid 
fever from a large area, and, consequently, the admissions were relatively high. 
Base Hospital No. 18 also received all cases of meningitis from the same area. 
The number of cases of measles was small, while there were only three cases of 
trench fever admitted to the hospital. 

Total number of infectious and epidemic diseases 2,014 

Influenza 52.0 

Mumps , 9.8 

Typhoid 3.2 

Meningitis 2.0 

Measles 1.3 

Para-typhoid 0.8 

German measles 0.5 

n. Tuberculosis. 

The fact that in the A.E.F. the demonstration of the tubercle in the sputum 
is required before a positive diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis can be made, 

III 



GENERAL HISTORY 



accounts for the relatively large number of cases under the caption "Under ob- 
servation for tuberculosis." In general, the number of cases of tuberculosis is 
small, which may be considered as an index of the splendid physical material 
composing the rank and file of the A.E.F. The careful exclusion of suspicious 
cases during enlistment, has also undoubtedly been a factor in preventing the 
spread of this disease. The pulmonary form of tuberculosis predominates. Only 
one case of tuberculous meningitis occurred in the series of meningitis cases. 

Total cases of tuberculosis loi 

Pulmonary form 88.5 

Other forms 12.0 

III. Venereal Cases. 

The total number of venereal cases treated was 836. The urethral form of 
gonorrhea occurred most frequently, while next in order of frequency was 
gonorrheal arthritis. The total number of cases of syphilis was 190. The primary 
form predominated. 

Total number of venereal cases 836 

Gonorrheal Infectious 77.0 

Syphilitic ' 23.0 

Gonorrheal urethritis 28.0 

Gonorrheal arthritis 22.8 

Gonorrheal epididymitis 7.6 

Gonorrheal orchitis 7.0 

Gonorrheal prostatitis 2.5 

Syphilis, primary 12.0 

Syphilis, secondary 5.2 

Syphilis, tertiary 5.8 

IV. General Diseases. 

The low percentage of alcoholism and drug habits is striking. 

V. Nervous Diseases. 

Epilepsy leads the list of nervous diseases, while paralysis are the next most 
frequent. 

Total nervous diseases 87 

Epilepsy 28.0 

Paralyses 23.0 

112 



PROFESSIONAL RECORDS OF HOSPITAL 



VI. Mental Diseases. 

By far the most common disease under this heading is psychasthenia, which 
includes many cases of the condition formerly diagnosed as shell shock. The 
proportion of mentally deficient is not large, nor is that of dementia praecox. 
Neurasthenia contributed its quota, which, however, is not excessive, facts which 
point to a careful examination of the mental qualifications of the soldiers at the 
points of enlistment. 

Total mental diseases 434 

Psychaesthenia 5^-0 

Neurasthenia 16.0 

Hysteria 1 1 -O 

Dementia prsecox 1 1 -O 

VII. Diseases of the Eye. 

Total number of diseases of the eye 468 

Astigmatism 50-0 

Conjunctivitis 18.0 

The proportion of cases of conjunctivitis is probably much larger, as prac- 
tically every case of mustard gas poisoning had an associated conjunctivitis. 
These cases have been listed under the general head of gas inhalation. 

VIII. Diseases of the Ear. 

Total number of diseases of the ear 365 

Otitis media 93.0 

Mastoiditis 7.0 

IX. Diseases of the Nose. 

Total number of diseases of the nose 238 

Adenoids •43-0 

Sinusitis 38.0 

X. Diseases of the Throat. 

Total number of diseases of the throat 437 

Tonsillitis 55-0 

Peritonsilar abscess 6.2 

113 



GENERAL HISTORY 



XI. Circulatory Diseases. 

Under this heading the greatest number of admissions is for hemorrhoids. 
The truly cardiac disorders are not very numerous, which is an index of the 
splendid physical material in the ranks, which bore the strain of warfare remark- 
ably well. 

Total disorders of the circulatory system . 683 

Hemorrhoids 40.0 

Myocarditis 14.0 

Varicocele 12.0 

Endocarditis 4.1 

Pericarditis 3.0 

Xn. Respiratory Diseases. 

The largest number of fatalities, exclusive of battle casualties, as will be seen 
in the analysis of the death statistics, occurred in this important group of diseases. 
The broncho-pneumonise have been particularly fatal infections, and propor- 
tionally killed more soldiers than any other disease. 

Total number of respiratory diseases 1,226 

Bronchitis 59.0 

Broncho-pneumonia 14.0 

Lobar pneumonia 12.0 

Pleurisy (with effusion) 9.0 

Bronchiectasis 0.6 

Hemothorax ; 0.2 

Pneumothorax o.i 

XHL Digestive System. 

Of the strictly medical diseases under this heading, acute catarrhal enteritis 
was by far the most frequent. Hernias were very common, and with appendicitis, 
furnished the larger part of the purely civil surgery. 

Total' diseases of the digestive system 1,381 

Inguinal hernias 25.0 

Enteritis 20.0 

Appendicitis 19.0 

XIV. Diseases of the Anus. 

Total diseases of the anus 52 

Fistula in ano , . .96.0 

114 



PROFESSIONAL RECORDS OF HOSPITAL 



XV. Diseases of Liver and Gall Bladder. 

Total diseases of liver and gall bladder 29 

Cholecystitis 51.0 

Abscesses of liver 10. o 

Cholelithiasis 35.0 

XVI. Genito- Urinary System. 

Total diseases of genito-urinary system 153 

Phimosis 39.0 

Nephritis 16.0 

Hydrocele 2 1 .0 

Nephrolithiasis 7.0 

XVTI. Diseases of the Skin. 

Total number of the diseases of the skin 443 

Pyodermia 22.0 

Carbuncle 9.0 

Dermatitis 1 1 .0 

Furunculosis 1 1 .0 

XVIII. Bones and Organs of Locomotion. 

Total number of the diseases of the bones 47 

Osteomyelitis 53.0 

Periostitis 41.0 

Total number of the diseases of the joints 89 

Synovitis 56.0 

Loose bodies in joints 30.0 

Total number of the miscellaneous diseases of the organs of loco- 
motion. , 89 

Flat foot 47.0 

Ingrown toenail : . . . . . . ; 19.0 

Trench foot 7.0 

XIX. Diseases Caused by External Causes. 

Total number of diseases caused by external causes 2,559 

Gas, absorption of deleterious 49.0 

Fractures, accidental i5-0 

Sprains 10. o 

115 



GENERAL HISTORY 



XX. Gunshot Wounds. 

Total number of cases of gunshot wounds 4,486 

It is interesting to note the localization of the gunshot wounds in their order 
of frequency. 

Fibula and tibia 15.0 

Femur 14.0 

Hands 9.0 

Radius and ulna 9.0 

Metatarsus, tarsus and phalanges 6.0 

Head 6.1 

Humerus 5.0 

Scapula 5.0 

Chest 5.0 

Abdomen 4.0 

Buttocks ' 2.0 

Neck 2.0 

Penis and scrotum 0.4 

XXI. Analysis of Death Statistics. 

Total number of admissions to hospitals 17,024 

Total number of deaths 204 

Percentage of mortality 1.2 

XXII. Diseases in the Order of Frequency in which they caused Death. 

Broncho-pneumonia 31 .0 

Gunshot wounds 24.0 

Pneumonia, lobar 7.0 

Meningitis (cerebro-spinal) 7.0 

Accidents, by trauma 6.0 

Scarlet fever 3.0 

Typhoid fever 3.0 

Empyema 0.5 

Tuberculosis . . . ; 0.5 

The feature worthy of comment in the death statistics, is the high mor- 
tality of broncho-pneumonia. This disease killed more soldiers in Base Hospital 
No. 18 than did wounds incurred in battle. Though the number of cases of gun- 
shot wounds admitted was about seventy-one times as many as that of broncho- 
pneumonia, the mortality was less by about 7 per cent. Again the low total per- 

116 



PROFESSIONAL RECORDS OF HOSPITAL 



centage mortality of i per cent is quite striking. These figures point out that a 
soldier not mortally wounded in battle has an excellent chance for eventual re- 
covery, if he can be afforded proper treatment, and that the Army has more to 
fear from the virulent respiratory diseases than the shells of the enemy. 

XXIII. General Statistics. 

Showing the diseases classed in the order of their frequency. 

Gunshot wounds 4.486 

Diseases from external causes 2,559 

Infectious and epidemic diseases 2,014 

Diseases of the digestive system 1,381 

Diseases of the respiratory system 1,226 

Venereal diseases 836 

Diseases of the circulatory system 683 

Diseases of the eye 468 

Diseases of the skin 443 

Mental diseases and defects 434 

Diseases of the ear 365 

Diseases of the nose 238 

Tuberculosis 233 

General diseases 202 

Genito-urinal diseases (non-venereal) I53 

Malformations and ill-defined diseases 145 

Diseases of the joints 89 

Nervous diseases 87 

Diseases of the anus 52 

Diseases of the bones 47 

Diseases of the liver and gall bladder 29 



117 



OBITUARIES 



Miss Jeannette Bellman 

Miss Jeannette Bellman was born in Dayton, Ohio, March 4, 1885. She 
graduated from the Training School for Nurses, Christ Hospital, Dayton, Ohio. 
She entered the service of the United States Army June 29, 191 7, and was on 
duty at Fort Sam Houston, Base Hospital No. i, until May, 191 8, when she was 
ordered to report in New York for overseas duty. The contingent of casual 
nurses, of which she was a member, sailed from New York on June 12, 1918, and 
arrived at Liverpool, England, on June 25, 1918. 

Miss Bellman was one of the group of twenty-fave nurses who were attached 
to Base Hospital No. 18 on July 8, 1918. She was on duty on the ward from that 
time until the day she was taken ill, November 2nd. Her care for the patients 
was untiring and she never spared herself in working for them. After a short and 
severe illness, she died on Novemiber 12, 191 8. 

Miss Miriam E. Knowles 

Miss Miriam E. Knowles, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas C. Knowles, 
of Yardley, Pa., died of scarlet fever November 12, 191 7, at Base Hospital No. 
t8, A.E.F. 

Miss Knowles was a graduate of Wellesley College and of the Johns Hopkins 
Training School for Nurses. She was one of the first to volunteer her services and 
joined the Hopkins Unit on June 4, 1917, with which she served until her death. 
She was a most efficient and devoted nurse. 

Her friends and professional associates feel deeply the loss of so loyal a mem- 
ber of the profession. 

Edwin S. Linton 

Edwin S. Linton was born in Washington, Pa., the son of Dr. Edwin Linton, 
Vice-President of Washington and Jefferson College and head of the Biological 
Department of that institution. He was graduated from Washington and Jef- 
ferson in June, 1914, with the degree of Master of Arts. In the fall of 1914 he 

119 



NERAL HISTORY 



entered Johns Hopkins Medical School. When in May, 1917, Base Hospital 
No. 18 was being organized for service in France, Edwin Linton was finishing his 
third year. An opportunity was given to members of his class to enlist. He was 
one of the first. This opportunity for service was to him the call of duty to 
which he gladly responded. 

In France during the difficult weeks of organization and adaptation he served 
faithfully and well. He lived to see Base Flospital No. 18 established as an effi- 
cient working unit of the United States Armv Hospital System. 

In November he contracted scarlet fever and after an illness of short duration 
he died November 14, 1917. The sense of loss at Base Hospital No. 18 was uni- 
versal. He was known and loved by all. Because of h'.s faithfulness to trust he 
had won the high regard of his officers and because of himself he held the abiding 
affection of his associates. 

Lyle Rich 

On Saturday, December 8, 1917, Lyle Rich, Private First Class, U.S. Base 
Hospital No. 18, A.E.F.,died, the second of the group of thirty-two medical stu- 
dents to give his life for the Great Cause. 

Since the establishment of Base Hospital No. 18 in France he had worked in 
Captain Walter Baetjer's laboratory. He was an indefatigable worker in the 
early days, when, amid numerous difficulties, the hospital was taking form. He 
contracted typhoid fever the latter part of November. On the ward he had the 
closest attention from Colonel Boggs and Captain Mason. W^hen perforation 
occurred on December 6th he was rushed immediately to operation. Col. W. A. 
Fisher performed the operation, but all efforts were unavailing; he died Saturday 
morning, December 8, 191 7. 

As medical student and laboratory worker he was serious, industrious, trust- 
worthy; as a soldier he was alert, obedient; as a friend he was loyal; in all — 
Lyle Rich was a true gentleman. 

Horace Elmer Teter 

On Thursday, February 28, 1918, Horace E. Teter, Corporal, Medical Detach- 
ment Unit A, attached to Base Hospital No. 18, A.E.F., died of pneumonia after 
a short illness. 

His devotion to duties won him promotion soon after his enlistment. He 
acted in the capacity of Mess Sergeant during the Unit's stay at Fort Porter, and 
he was thoroughly efficient in these lines. 

Shortly after his arrival in France he was taken sick, which later resulted in 
his death. His death marks a void in our hearts which can never be filled. 

120 




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ATTACHED OFFICERS 



Louis Casamajor, Captain 

Commissioned May 4, 1917. 

Sailed from New York May 14, 1917. 

Landed in England May 23, 1917. 

Landed in France May 31, 1917, with U.S. Base Hospital No. 2. 

May 31, 1917-October 2, 1917, No. i (Presby, U.S.A.) General Hospital, 
B.E.F.' 

October 2, 1917-October 14, 1917, No 3 Australian C.C.S., B.E.F. 

November 22, 1917-May 3, 1918, No. i (Presby, U.S.A.) General Hospital, 
B.E.F. 

May 5, 1918, Base Hospital No. 18, A.E.F. 

Edward Wilson Collins, Captain 
763 E. Allegheny Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Received commission in Medical Reserve Corps, April 25, 191 7, First Lieu- 
tenant, M.R.C. 

Ordered to Camp Greenleaf, Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., September 28, 1917. 

Ordered to Base Hospital Camp, Augusta, Ga., department of oto-laryng- 
ology, October 13, 191 7, which was base hospital to 28th Divisoin, Pennsylvania 
National Guard. 

Ordered overseas in "July Medical Replacement Draft," July 2, 1918. 

Sailed from Hoboken, N.J., July 13, 1918. 

Landed in Liverpool, England, July 26, 1918. 

Proceeded by way of Southampton across English Channel to Cherbourg, 
France, then to St. Aignon (Loir et Cher). 

Billeted at Thesee just outside of St. Aignon, which was a school for sanitary 
troops from August i to August 26, 1918. 

August 26th ordered to Vichy (Allier) Medical Center.. 

August 31st to September 28th ordered to Base Hospital No. i8,Bazoilles 
(Vosges), to substitute for Dr. Slack, who was sick. 

Received captaincy at Camp Hancock, Augusta, Ga., February 11, 1918. 

122 



ATTACHED OFFICER 



J. A. C. Colston, Major 

Called into active service May 3, 191 7. 

Sailed from New York May 8, 1917. 

Arrived at Liverpool May 19, 1917. 

Sailed from Southampton May 25, 1917. 

Arrived at Rouen May 26, 1917. 

Assigned for temporary duty at No. 9 General Hospital, B.E.F., Rouen, May 
27, 1917. 

Assigned for temporary duty at No. 6 General Hospital, B.E.F., Rouen, 
May 30, 1917. 

Reported to A.D.M.S., 15th Division, B.E.F., June 14, 1917. 

Assigned for duty with 46th Field Ambulance, 15th Division, B.E.F., June 

15, 1917- 

Served with 46th Field Ambulance and at various times with the following 
infantry battalions of the 15th Division: 78th Battalion, King's Own Scottish 
Borderers; 13th Battalion, The Royal Scots; 6th Battalion, The Queen's Own 
Cameron Highlanders; continuously at the Ypres and Arras fronts until Novem- 
ber 8, 1917. 

Relieved from duty with B.E.F. November 8, 1917. 

Reported for duty to Chief Surgeon, 42nd Division, A.E.F., November 24, 
1917. 

Evacuated sick to Base Hospital No. 18, December 22, 1917. 

Assigned to duty Base Hospital No. 18 about February 3, 1918. 

Accepted commission of captain, M.C., October 11, 1917. 

Thomas Anthony Dinan, Catholic Chaplain 

Entered American Red Cross Service on January 14, 1918. 

Arrived at Bazoilles-sur-Meuse on January 31, 1918, and assigned to Base 
Hospital No. 18. Was Red Cross Chaplain up to October 18, 1918, and from then 
on Regular Army Chaplain. 

Home address: La Salette College, 85 New Park Avenue, Hartford, Conn. 

Ernest Spurr du Bray, Captain 

Last position in civil life before entering the U.S. Army : Resident physician, 
City Hospital, Bay View, Baltimore, Md. 

Commissioned First Lieutenant, M.R.C., June 12, 1917, active service 
July 18, 1917. 

Sailed from New York August 14, 1917. 

123 



NERAL HISTORY 



Arrived Liverpool, England, September 2, 1917. 
Arrived London, England, September 3, 191 7. 

Left England and arrived in Boulogne, France, September 7, 1917. 
Ordered to B.E.F. front on September 8, 191 7, and attached to the 72nd 
Field Ambulance, near Ypres. 

Transferred to 24th Division Ammunition Column, B.E.F., on September 

28, 1917. The 24th Division Ammunition Column was then stationed near 
Peronne. 

January 12, 1918, promoted to captaincy, M.C., U.S.A. 
Ordered to Base Hospital No. 18, A.E.F., France, on April 2, 1918. 
Arrived Base Hospital No. 18, A.E.F., at Bazoilles-sur-Meuse on April 14, 
1918. 

Served on Medical Service of Base Hospital No. 18, A.E.F., from then on. 

George R. Dunn 

Commissioned First Lieutenant, M.R.C., July 26, 1917. 

Ordered to report for active service on September 16, 1917. 

To New York for overseas duty on September 26, 191 7. 

Embarked at New York on October 9, 1917, on Steamship Baltic. 

Landed at Liverpool, England, on October 24, 1917. 

On duty at 2nd Northern General Hospital, Leeds, England, from October 

29, 1917, to April 25, 1918. 

Left England April 25, 1918, and arrived at Base Hospital No. 18 for duty on 
April 29, 1918. 

William Thomas Eudy, Lieutenant 

Entered M.O.R.C, Fort Riley, Kans., April 18, 1918. 

Assigned to duty at Camp Hancock, Augusta, Ga., to examine recruits, 
July 2, 1918. 

Assigned to duty with Medical Replacement Unit No. 39 for overseas duty, 
August 23, 1918. 

Sailed for Europe, September 8, 1918. 

Assigned to duty at Base Hospital No. 18 October 5, 1918. 

Frank A. Evans, Captain 

Commissioned First Lieutenant, M.R.C., September 19, 1915. 
Attended Medical Officers' Training Camp at Plattsburg, N.Y., August 
session, summer of 1916. 

124 



ATTACHED OFFICER 



Ordered to report to Washington, D.C., to prepare for overseas service 
May 6, 1917, and left Washington May 18, 1917, with orders to report to the 
British authorities in London. 

Embarked at New York on S.S. Mongolia, Atlantic Transport Line, May 19, 
1917, landing at Falmouth, England, June 2, 1917. 

With orders for duty with the British Expeditionary Forces in France, re- 
ported June 7, 1917, to the Commanding Officer, Boulogne area, and was as- 
signed to Stationary Hospital No. 14, B.E.F., at Wimeraux. 

Transferred to the Third Division, B.E.F., June 11, 1917, and was assigned 
to the Seventh Field Ambulance Company. 

Transferred for duty as Battalion Medical Officer to the 8th Battalion, King's 
Own Royal Lancashires, July 27, 1917, and again on August 24, 1917, to the 1st 
Battalion, Gordon Highlanders, both of 76th Brigade, 3rd Division, B.E.F. 

Commissioned as Captain, M.R.C., September 20, 1917. 

Awarded British Military Cross, September 26, 1917. 

Received "Regimental Citation" from 1st Gordon Highlanders, October 7, 

1917. 

Received orders to report to Base Hospital No. 18, A.E.F., January 6, 1918, 
and reported there January 15, 191 8. 

Ray E. Hunt, Y.M.C.A. Secretary 

Entered Y.M.C.A. Service, Fort Snelling, September i, 1917. 

Became General Secretary, Fort Snelling Y.M.C.A., October i, 1917. 

Ordered to New York October 24, 191 7; landed at Bordeaux, reached Neuf- 
chateau November 8, 1917. Assigned to loist Machine Gun Battalion Janu- 
ary 15, 1918, transferred to loist Engineers; transferred to Base Hospital No. 18 
April I, 1918. Became Acting Chaplain of Base Hospital No. 18 on June i, 1918. 

Home address: 3325 Grand Avenue, Minneapolis, Minn. 

Louis A. King, First Lieutenant 

Enlisted at Barado, Mich., September 20, 191 7. 

Commissioned October 4, 1917. 

Ordered into active service April 4, 1918, Station Camp Greenleaf, Fort 

Oglethorpe, Ga. 

Ordered overseas May 13, 191 8. 

Sailed from New York June 8, 1918, on Cunard S.S. Aquitania. 

Arrived Liverpool, England, June 15, 1918. 

Sailed from Southampton, England, June 19, 1918. 

Arrived Le Havre, France, June 20, 1918. 

125 



GENERAL HISTORY 



Arrived at Blois, France, June 21, 1918. 

Assigned to Base Hospital No. 18, arriving June 24, 1918. 

Assigned to Ward D, Base Hospital No. 18. 

Born Memphis, Tenn., September 21, 1869. 

Graduate Saginaw, Mich., 1903. 

John C. Lyman, Captain 

Commissioned May i, 191 7. 

Called into active service May 16, 1917; sailed from New York on May 17, 
1917. 

Landed in Liverpool, England, May 28, 191 7. Crossed channel June 2nd from 
Folkestone to Boulogne, where I reported to the British R.A.M.C. for duty. 

Assigned to British Stationary Hospital No. 8 at Wymereux. Served at this 
hospital under Major Sinclair during the Messines push. Ordered to the 37th 
Division, B.E.F., June 11, 1917, which was resting on the Lys. Division was 
ordered into the line in front of the Messines Ridge. Spent seven months, most 
of the time as Battalion M.O., with this division, which remained in the line for 
the entire time. 

Transferred to A.E.F. January 8, 1918; reported for duty at Base Hospital 
No. 18, A.E.F. , January 9, 1918. 

Albert S. McCown, First Lieutenant 

May 17, 1918, commissioned as First Lieutenant in Medical Reserve Corps. 

June 15, 1918, on duty at Camp Hospital No. 31, Camp de Mencan, as 
Genito-Urinary Officer for camp and hospital. 

August 23, 1918, on duty as assistant with thoracic operating team, headed 
by Major J. L. Yates. 

October 23, 1918, on duty at Base Hospital No. 18. 

W. H. Michael, P. A. Surgeon, U.S. Navy 

Arrived in France on February 6, 1918, as M.O., 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines. 

February 11, 1918, as M.O., 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines. 

With the latter unit from March 15, 1918, to August 8, 1918, in the Verdun 
sector, at Bois de Belleau to the left of Chateau-Thierry, and at Vierzy in the 
counter-offensive in the middle of June. 

Awarded the D.S.C. in the attack with the Marines on June 6th, at the Bois 
de Belleau. 

Detached from 6th Marines on August 8, 1918, and ordered to Base Hospital 
No. 18 for duty. 

126 



ATTACHED OFFICER 



Hugh J. Morgan, First Lieutenant 

From Sanitary School at Langres to Casual Officer Depot. 

From Casual Officer Depot to Base Hospital No. 23 at Vittel for duty June 
15, 1918. 

From Base Hospital No. 23 to Base Hospital No. 15 at Chaumont for tem- 
porary duty June 30, 1918. 

From Base Hospital No. 15 to Casual Operating Team No. 510 July i, 1918. 

With Casual Operating Team No. 510 in the Chateau-Thierry, St. Mihiel, 
Verdun, Argonne and Champagne drives. 

November 15, 1918, relieved of duty with Casual Operating Team No. 510 
and ordered to Base Hospital No. 18 for duty. 

John J. Singer, Captain 

September I, 1917, to February 18, 1918, on duty at Pittsburgh, Pa., as Ad- 
jutant and Assistant Instructor, Pittsburgh School Military Roentgenology. 

February 18, 1918, to March 11, 1918, on duty Cornell Medical School for 
course in mobile X-ray equipment. 

Sailed March 11, 191 8, from Hoboken. 

Arrived Brest, France, March 20, 1918. 

March 22, 1918, to March 31, 1918, at Casual Officers' Depot, Blois. 

April I, 1918, ordered to Base Hospital No. 18. 

Home Address: 542 W. Pittsburgh Street, Greensburg, Pa. 

James Prescott Walcott 

Mr. Walcott came to Base Hospital No. 18 in January, 1918, and continued 
to direct the Red Cross activities until December, 1918. Before he left he also 
had full charge of the entire valley. 

Charles Hansell Watt, Captain 

Commissioned April, 191 7. 

Entered active service May 30, 1917. 

Entered Medical Officers' Training Camp, Fort Benjamin Harrison, Ind., 
June 2, 1917. June i6th ordered to W^ashington to await sailing orders. Sailed 
from New York July 23rd, landed in Liverpool August 12th, and Boulogne, France, 
August 14, 1917. August 15th assigned to duty with No. 14 General Hospital, 
B.E.F. August 28th assigned to duty with i6th Division, B.E.F. While on the 
strength of this division was assigned to duty with Field Ambulance Nos. 112, 

127 



GENERAL HISTORY 



113 and 3 (British) Casualty Clearing Station. January 3, 1918, was relieved 
from duty with B.E.F. January 6, 1918, on duty Base Hospital No. 18, A.E.F. 
Commissioned as Captain, January 12, 1918. 
Home address: Thomasville, Ga. 

Peregrine Wroth, Jr. 

Commissioned Captain, M.R.C., on July 26, 1918. 
Ordered to Camp Greenleaf for duty on August 10, 191 8. 
Ordered to Camp Crane on October 12, 1918. 

Ordered to temporary duty, influenza epidemic, on October 15, 1918. 
Ordered overseas October 25, 1918. 
Landed Liverpool, England, on November 2, 1918. 

On temporary duty at Winnal Downs, Winchester, England, Cherbourg, 
France, Le Mans and Chaumont. 

Assigned to Base Hospital on November 24, 1918. 



128 



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ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PERSONNEL 



Baer, Dr. William S. 
Baetjer, Dr. Walter A. 
Bernheim, Dr. Bertram M. 
Boggs, Dr. Thomas R. 
Boyd, Dr. Montague L. 
Bridgman, Dr. E. W. 
Brun, Dr. B. Lucien 
Casamajor, Dr. Louis 
Clark, Mr. Henry B. 
Collins, Dr. Edward W. 
Colston, Dr. J. A. Campbell 
du Bray, Dr. Ernest S. 
Dunn, Dr. George Robert 
Eaton, Dr. H. B. 
Eud}^, Dr. William Thomas 
Evans, Dr. Frank A. 
Finney, Dr. J. M. T. 
Fisher, Dr. William A., Jr. 
Fulton, Dr. Harry C. 
Getz, Dr. Lawrence 
Guthrie, Dr. Clyde G. 
Happ, Dr. William 
Heuer, Dr. George J. 
Hutchins, Dr. Amos Francis 
King, Dr. John H. 



Adams, Christine M. 
Adamson, Ruth A. E. 
Baily, Florence M. 
Baker, Bessie 



Officers 

King, Dr. Louis A. 
Kline, Dr. Benjamin S. 
Lankford, Dr. Livius, Jr. 
Love, Dr. S. Glenn 
Lyman, Dr. John Cushman 
Mason, Dr. Verne R. 
McCown, Dr. Albert L. 
Michael, Dr. William Howard 
Morgan, Dr. Hugh J. 
Noble, Dr. William D. 
Porter, Dr. Clarence 
Ross, Dr. M. Wilson 
Shaw, Dr. Henry N. 
Singer, Dr. John J. 
Slack, Dr. Harry R. 
Stone, Dr. Harvey B. 
Sydenstricker, Dr. Virgil P.' 
Tipton, Mr. John M. 
Walker, Dr. George 
Waters, Dr. Charles A. 
W'att, Dr. Charles Hansell 
Wharton, Dr. Lawrence R. 
Whitham, Dr. Lloyd B. 
Wroth, Dr. Peregrine, Jr. 

Nurses 

Barnard, Annie 
Beal, Marion 
Beers, Bertha C. 
Bellman, Jeannette 



130 



ALPHABETICAL LIST 



O F 



PERSONNEL 



Berry, Jessie Lee 
Biery, Flora Eva 
Bunting, Gertrude I. 
Bunting, Mary E. 
Bridge, Ruth 
Carr, Alice G. 
Carter, Emma E. 
Chick, Caroline B. 
Christman, Caroline Hirst 
Coons, Jean E. 
Craigen, Claire R. P. 
Cushman, Ruth 
Davis, Mary Elizabeth 
Dean, Eva S. 
Denniston, Margaret 
Dwyer, Katherine 
Ellicott, Katheryn 
Erskine, Helen Mar 
Farnsworth, Clara J. 
Faulkner, Amy E. 
Fitzgerald, Helen Dorothy 
Foley, Abigail 
Frankhauser, Louise E. 
Frazer, Josephine 
French, Corinna D. 
Frierson, Neely 
Gainey, Helen M. 
Goldthwalte, Mary A. 
Grant, Isabel F. 
Haefner, Emma 
Hall, Maude H. 
Hall, Mary 
Harlan, Elizabeth 
Hartshorne, Florrie 
Hewitt, Estelle G. 
Hollindale, Edith Amy 
Huff, Mathilda E. 
Janvier, Celeste 
Jones, Eleanor 
Jones, Ethel Louise 



Keen, Nancy F. 
Kendall, Ruby 
King, Mrs. Lyda 
Kennedy, Josephine 
Knowles, Miriam E. 
Kraker, Theresa 
La Bier, Ruby I. 
Lamar-Miller, Cazenove 
La Velle, Margaret E. 
Liphart, M. Maye 
Lowry, Hattie G. 
Lyman, Mary G. 
McCandless, May M. 
MacKay, Annie 
MacYarish, Rhoda E. 
Mae, Harriett 
Mergy, Aline 
Meyer, Agnes 
Michael, Fannie C. 
Miller, Mabel Malloy 
Millner, Angele R. 
Moysey, Madeline 
Myer, Eleanor L. 
Nelson, Elizabeth 
O'Connor, M. Annie 
Oliver, Evelyn 
Omohundro, Bessie W. 
O'Neil, Catherine 
Packard, Helen S. 
Perot, Gladys 
Quigley, Marie L. 
Ramsey, June A. 
Raymond, Agness M. 
Reed, Mabel 
Richards, Elsie E. 
Robertson, Amanda T. 
Rogers, Ann S. 
Sayres, Margaret W. 
Shipley, Mary A. 
Sinclair, Margaret 



131 



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Stanley, Leota E. 
Stock, Pauline B. 
Thompson, Olive I. 
Trax, pAirith 
Velable, Laura D. 



Adler, Harry G. 
Ackerman, Clarence H. 
Anderson, Eugene C. 
Anderson, William M. 
Angelier, Charles F. 
Argabright, Joseph H. 
Arman, Albert 
Ashley, William L. 
Avery, William E. 
Avery, Walton 
Badner, David 
Badner, Moe 
Bamford, George A. 
Bell, Fred J. " 
Bennett, FVed J. 
Bennett, Royston 
Bonadio, Michael 
Bowen, Bertram M. 
Bowden, David T. 
Boyd, John W. 
Brady, William E. 
Bremmer, Frederick G. 
Brewster, Albert H. 
Brown, Alzero F. 
Brown, G rover 
Burns, Ira Lee 
Burns, James 
Carter, Alexander 
Casey, Paul A. 
Cassidy, Clarence F. 
Chambers, Morris Lee 
Christacks, William 
Chlad, John 



Watson, May 
Weisbrod, Bertha E. 
Wilson, Edna Marguerite 
Wright, Catherine M. 



Enlisted Men 



Christiansen, John 
Christopher, William H. 
Clark, Theodore 
Cohn, David M. 
Coblentz, Richard C. 
Coles, Harry F. H. 
Conroy, Frank D. 
Cump, Guy 
Dade, Virgil J. 
Daily, Walter J. 
Dakin, Elmer 
Daniel, Howell E. 
DeLozier, Lyman E. 
DeMarcillac, Andre 
Denver, Charles O. 
DeRoso, Antony 
Desch, Eugene L. 
DeWoody, Philip H. 
Dicke, Joseph L. 
Dixon, Robert H. 
Dunn, Raymond 
Dunning, Beverly 
Eggerstedt, Edward A. 
Eisenberg, Harold 
Elvers, Charles F. 
Enright, James D. 
Finan, Bernard, Jr. 
Fisher, John C. 
Fleming, Robert A. 
French, William L. 
Frankel, Philip F. 
Gager, Leslie T. 
Gazzola, Valentino 



132 



ALPHABETICAL 



LIST 



O F 



PERSONNEL 



Gentile, Lawrence 
Ghormley, Ralph 
Glazer, Raymond 
Gold, Samuel G. 
Griffith, Bernard G. 
Grolock, Louis A. 
Haldeman, Eugene P. 
Hamburger, Lewis 
Harw"Ood, Garland M. 
Hawkins, William P. 
Helland, Carl F. 
Hemsath, Frederick A. 
Higinbothen, Paul M. 
Holmes, George M. 
Holmes, Robert L. 
Hooper, Eugene L. 
Huiskamp, John E. 
Hunter, John A., Jr. 
Hunter, Richard I. 
Hutchins, Charles L., Jr. 
Hyams, Irving 
Kelley, William J. 
Kelly, William L. J. 
Kennard, William PI. 
Key, John A. 
Kircher, Vally P. 
King, Charles H. 
Kobsa, Charles 
Koontz, Amos R. 
Kountz, Harry B. 
Kraft, Oliver P. 
Krauss, Louis 
Kutz, Adam J. 
Lane, Clifford M. 
Lansberg, Frederick 
Lathram, Crit C. 
Lazarus, Sylvan 
Lincoln, Jennings S. 
Linton, Edwin S. 
McCormick, John T. 



McDonald, Donald J. 
McFadden, Clarence W. 
McFee, William F. 
McGee, Robert M. 
McGee, Sam O. 
McGrath, Michael T. 
McGroarty, Robert B. 
Mclsaac, James 
McKee, Elmer E. 
Martindale, Joseph W. 
Mass, Frank L. 
Mayer, William F. 
Meekins, Gilbert E. 
Miles, George L. 
Molesworth, Carlton 
Montley, Admiral Dewey 
Nelson, Clarence P. 
Newhouse, Hamel F. 
Nixon, Fred L. 
O'Brien, Brendan 
O'Neill, Walter I. 
Owens, Guy T. 
Owens, Marvin S. 
Palmer, Charles A. 
Petre, Clarence 
Petrides, C^eorge 
Porter, Clarence C. 
Poteet, Jesse T. 
Price, Robert R. 
Pry, Hugh M. 
Pscherer, Henr^^ F. J. E. 
Rankin, John Paul 
Rankin, Richard C. 
Reibetanz, Edgar F. 
Rich, Lyle 
Rickard, Melvin J. 
Rhodes, Charles, Jr. 
Ringer, James V. 
Roddick, Wilken M. 
Roeder, Albert 



133 



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Roney, Charles F. 
Rosenburg, Moses L. 
Ross, Willis E. 
Rosselot, Clarence L. 
Rosskopf, Joseph M. 
Robinson, Edward A, 
Ruckel, Clyde A. 
Rupel, Evan D. 
Ryan, John E. 
Salisbury, John A. 
Sample, Charles B. 
vScanlon, John J. 
Schriener, Paul J. 
Schotta, Elmer S. 
Senkyr, Jerome 
Shomshor, Edwin D. 
Sigel, Irving S. 
Skrentny, Joseph H. 
Smith, Frederick M. 
Smith, John J. 
Smith, Woodruff 
Smith, Merton T. 
Smith, Talmage 
Southworth, John D. 
Spalding, Edward 
Stephens, Andrew J. 
Stephens, Ewell R. 
Stone, Brownie 



Finney, John 



Swartz, Ralph E. 
Swift, John F. 
Thompson, James B. 
Todd, James M. 
Tracy, Richard J. 
Trower, Joseph A. 
Tuthill, Harold F. 
Valeu, Fred 
Vandas, George 
Verplanck, Van V. 
Vincent, Edward L. 
Vitali, Louie 
Wagner, Charles 
Wagner, John C. 
Walsh, William Patrick 
Walter, Joseph V. 
Wayman, Conrad L. 
Welch, William D. 
Wiles, Frederick E. 
Wilkins, Lawson 
William, Samuel B. 
Wilmer, William B. 
Witherow, Ralph L. 
Wilkinson, Norbert A. 
Wilson, Herman M. 
Woodard, Alva C. 
Woodard, Dana V. 
Zeskind, Isadore M. 



Civilian Employes 

Paul, John 



134 



